Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum
by Pocket-fulla-shells
Summary: Somewhat based on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Sky, Floyd finds himself in a world without humans, and as been turned into a pokemon himself, and sets out to discover the truth and the way home, only to discover things that would undermine his own sanity
1. The Rudest Awakening Ever

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

A fanfiction inspired by Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Part 1: The Rudest Awakening Ever

"Floyd, oh god Floyd!"

"Floyd, I'm not letting you go! Fact!"

"Just a little longer, it's almost ready!"

"Dammit! It's...NO! FLOYD!"

"I'll find you again, I promise! You here me? Dialgan honesty, I WILL find you again!"

…

I never wanted this...

…

To those who may be watching – this is Floyd Munro speaking. That is, if anyone can see me where I am least, which I really don't think is possible right now. Anyway, a lot of things happened in my life over the past year or so that, well, let's just say I wish they never happened. It's just been one bad event after another, where I discovered many things I wished I could just forget about, yet forget them at my peril – there are things beyond conceivable importance I really have to do soon, and I don't expect to succeed at them. Still, this brief moment in time is at least allowing me to reflect upon my past, but past this point, I'll have little idea what will happen – maybe it will turn out for the best, maybe it won't. I don't have complete control over my own fate – I can only apply some influence to what happens to be, and even less to those around me, and it's probably only due to that and sheer luck that I got this far. I really don't have much to lose now, if you come to think of it, all manner of disasters and tragedies...

I'm starting to feel weak now, with...er, what did I just say twenty seconds ago? Mind's going blank...what's that on my body, err...can't tell right now...can't stay awake...and Dialga couldn't help me now...

...I'll see you on the other side, friend...

…

…

"Glurgh…." I groaned to myself. I had been drinking quite heavily after the band gig I played at last night, and I most likely passed out from all the drinking, or at least that's the way it seemed – last thing I remembered was staggering home with my best buddy, Omar. My Headache was strong, and it felt like my brain was throwing punches at the inside of the skull, and my whole body felt it was being pinned in this awkward position that I was lying in. Clutching my head with both my hands, I rolled onto my front as my body protested with violence, as I squeezed my eyes hut and face planted on the gritty ground beneath me – gritty ground that most certainly wasn't a carpet or floorboards.

"Wh…what's this…?" I thought out loud to myself – It felt like I could taste sand in my mouth – I must have threw up from all the drink, and due to the strange pains all over my body, I must have said something very wrong to someone. I forced my eyes opened, and saw the reason why it felt like I had sand in my mouth – because there actually was – it seems like I was lying in some kind of sand pit. I must have been dumped here after I was assaulted.

"Ok, I will NEVER drink like that again – I hope nothing got stolen…" I said to myself as I slowly raised my head – turns out it wasn't just a sand pitch, but a rather small beach, or at last I thought it was through my blurry vision. I suddenly jerked fully awake – Portobello Beach?! I was at the South side of Edinburgh where I was in the pubs drinking, not the North! How did I end up here?! I spat out the sand in my mouth, and pushed myself to stand on my feet – it was a mammoth effort, but straight after I done that, my headache pain spiked, and my vision became a blur of grey, blue and yellow. I stumbled and rested against the cliff edge – except there was no cliff at Portobello! I was a long way from home for sure now, yet I was too tired and in too much pain to physically panic. Mentally, however, I was terrified! Too shattered to move any real distances, I had no choice but to stick it out for now.

About an hour passed of trying to deal with my hangover and injuries. They didn't feel like normal injuries though – It was all over my body literally, and it felt more like I took a run through wildfire than being punched and kicked. The beach was spinning slower and slower, and I could begin to make out a few details – there were quite a few rocks on the beach, and while it could just be my vision messing up, I could see bubbles floating across the sea – very bizarre indeed.

A small while later, I felt healthy enough to move – I walked very slowly across the beach, using the cliff edge like a hand rail to support. Not only was my body in pain, it felt oddly disfigured, which was bewildering, since the pain was slowly subsiding, but the feelings of disfigurement remained. I must have pissed off a pretty powerful drug dealer in a bar or something for me to be beaten up so badly like this and dragged to some unknown place by his goons.

"I wonder if someone is around…." I mumbled. Looking around brought the headache shooting back, so I kept my head level and kept walking very slowly onward, taking each step as carefully as possible to keep my body perfectly balanced to minimize the pain.

"HEY!" I yelled, clutching my head with my left arm – it felt very odd – I couldn't feel my hair, and it felt like it was shaped a bit differently. "ANYONE HERE?" I continued to yell – perhaps someone could find me and tell me where I am – because it was very difficult to tell from my situation.

"HELLO?!" I yelled again, and this time, I could have sworn I saw movement in front of me. A strange figure was moving towards me – strange thing was, it didn't seem all that human. Matter of fact, It wasn't human at all – it looked like a strange animal. I focused my eyes on it, and it slowly became clearer – there was no mistaking it – it was a pokemon, a cyndaquil for that matter. I staggered backwards – was I invading its territory, and would it try to burn me!? In this state, would I even be fit to run?!

"Don't hurt me, please!" I said at the approaching pokemon. It carried on advancing towards me, fear starting to infect my mind. Clearly I wasn't thinking straight, what could a cyndaquil understand of the English language, let alone a wild one! I never even liked pokemon, the creepy things always scared me with their curiosity of people and their rather lethal abilities that made any one of them a potential threat to me – yet society loved the damn things! Just when I was about to turn around and flee, it did something I did not expect.

"Calm down buddy, I'm not going to hurt you!" It spoke, and seemed to chuckle. I was in awe – this pokemon seemed to have intelligence more along the lines of other human beings, rather than other animals and most other pokemon – I guess speaking to it wasn't that ridiculous after all! I remember seeing another pokemon who could speak, but I had no idea when and where I saw it – it seemed like a false case of déjà vu, so I ignored it.

"You OK?" It asked again. "You seem a bit dazed and lost, can I help at all?" Its speaking unsettled me slightly, but it didn't seem like it had any intentions of harming me.

"N…no." I replied – speaking to a pokemon like this just felt bewildering – I was aware that many people who worked with pokemon spoke to them, but to me, it seemed daft – and here I was speaking to this cyndaquil. It acted human, so I might as well treat it like one for the time being.

"I'm lost, I have a splitting headache, I feel a dull pain all over my body, and it seems like my sanity has been messed around with a bit, for I am having a conversation with a cyndaquil – I sure hope no one slipped some acid in my cider…" The cyndaquil looked at me with curiosity and bewilderment – he clearly had no idea what to make of the situation. Also, I noticed the cyndaquil was almost the same size as me, but even I knew they were very small compared to humans, and seeing this strange incident, I couldn't help but force a smile to at least try and salvage a little positive emotion here.

"…Is that some kind of costume you're wearing, because it's VERY well made – I genuinely thought you were a cyndaquil for a moment." I said – it make sense – I'm looking at a talking human-sized cyndaquil – it would make perfect sense if a human was inside a costume talking to me.

"…You're…strange – are most snivys that odd?" he replied in puzzlement. I spluttered at this remark.

"What snivy are you referring to?" I asked him, feeling a bit frustrated as I looked around to see if there were any snivys about, of which there were non that I could see.

"Aw come on Snivy – you can't possibly be this odd, surely – I mean, who do you think you are?" It said to me, sounding amused by all this. I grumbled – it was relishing my current predicament, I was sure of it. Raising my hand slowly, I pointed at him to bring his full attention. My arm looked really blurry, unable to focus on closer objects.

"Stop calling me that! My name is Floyd – if you want to continue talking to me then you'd better damn well refer me by my name!" I said, getting a wee bit pissed off at him – was he calling me a snivy? This confused me to no end.

"I'm just saying…" The cyndaquil said. "You know, I don't think you are OK – you should come with me." He said – he didn't sound like he was mocking me, but I took it the wrong way.

"Look you stupid bastard, I was just asking where I bloody was – I drank too much, and I somehow wound up on this beach, so could you just tell me where I am and leave me be?" I said in a headache-induced rant.

"…Wow, you're a bit of an asshole, you know that? I hope the rest of your kind aren't as rude as you." The cyndaquil said, though he somehow didn't seemed to be all that bothered by what I said. "You're on the beach just south of Treasure Town...er, that didn't look like it meant much to you."

"Sorry, I have a splitting headache, and I am lost and confused, forgive me for my bad attitude" I said apologetically – I could see that he wasn't trying to annoy me. "By the way, why on earth do you keep calling me Snivy? I'm a human being you silly man!"

"Well…that's obvious, isn't it Floyd." He said gesturing to my body. "I mean, you certainly look like one, and nothing like a human, not that they have ever been seen around these parts. They're just legends themselves from another world, whatever that is. You sure you're not a bit delusional?" He looked quite concerned.

"I'm sorry buddy, but YOU are the delusional one!" I said arrogantly to him. "But I'll humour you – I will look into the rock pool over here..." I said and started walking over to it. "And I will see my awesome bearded face…" I said, and stood by the pool. "And I will see a nice looking...HOLYFUCKBULLSHIT! WAAARRGGHHH!" I screamed when I looked at my reflection and fell backwards in shock, breathing very heavily our of complete horror – either my eyes pulled an extremely cruel joke on me or it was...

"Man, what happened to you?" The cyndaquil said behind me, obviously trying to hide a chuckle. Hyperventilating, I slowly got to my feet and had a very slowly looked at the pool again. I stared at it for five seconds, before screeching very loudly, looking right at myself. I was covered in shades of green, had gigantic eyes, and a highly elongated nose, with some kind of leaf flopping on my head that seemed attached to it. All traces of my hair on my head and face were all gone as I clasped my arms over my very large nose – green, three fingered and not remotely human. There was no point denying it now, I was a snivy, exactly as he said.

"No, no, NO!" I yelled; panic surging across every single nerve fibre in my body "THIS ISN'T REAL!" I said, moving seemingly randomly in shock in panic – I found the pokemon scary enough as it was, and now I WAS one! Regardless of outcome now, this quite possibly had to be the worst day of my life!

"THIS ISN'T FUCKING REAL! NO! My...my body! My own self! I...I loved it..." I then pointed at the cyndaquil with an accusing finger, scowling angrily and approaching him until my hand almost brushed his nose that would give mine a run for it's money in terms of size.

"You CUNT! You did this to me, didn't you, just so you could see my reaction!" I yelled at the stunned cyndaquil.

"No, of course not, I just found you li…" He said before I cut in again

"Stop talking shit! You WILL help me get home, AND this body – ugh, I want it back to the way it was! You will help me get back to my human self again as well, got it?!" I said, looking down at the rest of my body – it was a disgusting sight, seeing myself as a pokemon.

"Wait…so let me recap…" The cyndaquil said "You passed out, ended up on this beach, and got turned from a human to a pokemon" He said.

"In essence, yes. If you don't believe me, I don't blame you – I'm finding it hard to believe it myself." I said to him, starting to mellow down a bit. Sitting on a rock I sighed and looked upwards into the dimming sky, seeing the gradient of colour from the dark east to the brighter west, "By the way, do you have a name? I don't want to just refer to you by your species."

"That would be Serge, but most people prefer to call each other by our species name unless they know them very well." He said to me. "And I don't think you're lying, but I am finding this whole story of yours very hard to believe – humans are unheard of in these parts – some people believe they only exist in another world, and there's certainly been no reports of humans becoming pokemon." This unsettled me even further, sending the panic that once briefly subsided back with a vengeance.

"So, Serge, you're trying to say I went to a completely different WORLD?!" I said, looking extremely fearful. "So, not only do I have no idea where I am, it could also be the case I ended up in a completely different world, and I got turned into a pokemon AS WELL!" I then ran to the part of the beach where the waves just touched my feet and held my arms in the air as I dropped to my knees in despair.

"IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK COSMIC JOKE?! ARCEUS, PALKIA, GIRATINA?! You got me good! You win! Now just send me home..." Dialga would never approve of such a thing – he actually had a good sense of right and wrong unlike the lies the other three gods spewed to mankind. To make matters worse, I don't think there'd be a fellow Dialgan to confer with here, or at least that was my suspicious of this place, wherever it was in the grand scheme of things. In hindsight, I probably looked ridiculous to Serge, but stress and fear was currently overriding any feelings of potential embarrassment.

"…I'm sorry Floyd, I don't know how to respond to that. Tell you what, I'll stay with you for a day or two, and see how you feel afterwards." He said, sounding a bit sympathetic, but most likely thinking my sanity was lost, rather the believing my predicament.

"Y…yea, I'd like that." I said and looked around sadly. "Thank you – at least you're not a shithole or anything nasty like that. I don't see how this horrible incident happened though – perhaps someone or some pokemon with some crafty powers did this to me when I passed out drunk – or some of the gods themselves like I mentioned earlier, if you've ever heard of them." I bowed my head in sorrow, and the leaf fell in front of my head. I grabbed it and it was indeed attached to my head, hanging there being very narrow and pointy at the end. "Well, at least they remembered to keep my hair with me in some sort of form, if that's not scraping at the bottom of the barrel too much." It looked like Serge was in deep thought.

"Nope, I can't think of anything remotely this strange happening, sorry. I mean, unexpected discoveries happen all the time, but this...if you're spot on accurate, has to be the strangest thing! Humans have apparently only appeared here once, and that was over a hundred years ago, according to old folks tales and legends and whatnot."

"Gee, that's polite – the strangest thing indeed." I said bitterly.

"Nonono, that not what I meant at all – I didn't saying that you coming here was a bad thing." Serge said "Well, to yourself, it obviously is, and that's totally understandable. As for myself, I'm not doing too good either – I got laid off, and I'm unemployed, and I'm having trouble chasing the career of my dreams."

"THAT'S a pressing issue." I said sarcastically before double tracking on that – I did want this native to help me after all, and antagonizing him wasn't going to help the chances of that happening at all. "Sorry, that came out badly...I'll try again – What is this career of your…wait, you pokemon have jobs?! Have you built civilizations?!" I said in wonder.

"Yes we do – do they not in your world? Anyhow, I've always wanted to be an explorer, but I don't have the skills yet, so I want to be trained at The Wigglytuff Guild, and eventually go independent." Serge seemed quite passionate about this. "You see, being a shop assistant was so very boring, and really, I only moved here to become an explorer – the sole purpose for me." He brought what seemed like a strange rock with strange, yet somehow familiar markings on it.

"You see this? I found it when I was sixteen – I'm nineteen now, and ever since then, it really brought those childhood dreams of becoming a great explorer to the foreground! I remember this floaty green being that seemed to usher me towards a tree stump when I was taking a walk through the woods nearby Acalan Town in the evening, and I found this. I guess part of the reason for wanting to become an explorer is this – this must have been put there on purpose, and maybe even specifically for me. It's been bugging me ever since, and I have to find out more about this rock here – no, it's more than a rock – I'm convinced it's some sort of fragment left from some ancient ruins or relics." Serge finished his story, which to be honest, I didn't really care about, but this was about getting home! I had to at least try to feign interest to get him on my side.

"Fascinating...I really wish I could help you with that, but I've no idea about that...symbol..." I looked at Serge's rock closely, looking at the symbol carefully – perhaps it was from some ancient pokemon civilization or something like that, or from some foreign one. I'm sure it wasn't from a local modern one, as surely Serge would have found out by now of it's origins.

"…Anyway, I really don't know what to do now – I mean, I have no clue how I got here, and no clue how to get back to my home world. And I still can't believe I'm a fucking pokemon…" I said miserably. "Anyway, I wish you luck on your future as an explorer. Of course, I will accept your offer to stay with you for a bit – there must be SOME pokemon who knows about what happened to me. I was pretty demanding earlier, but if you can at least point me in the right direction, I'd be exceedingly grateful towards you."

"Indeed so Floyd, perhaps someone in the guild can-YEEARGH!"" He said, as I saw two pokemon smash him from behind – a koffing and zubat, both hovering and flying in the same spot respectively with mischievous intent.

"Now, now, what was THAT for – me and Serge were having a nice conversation, and you do THAT to him?! Watch where you're going next time!" I said to them both and helped Serge up. "I would apologize if I were you – its good manners, but I suppose you've never heard of them." I continued on, my human superiority starting to seep through.

"There it is!" The zubat said "Nab it and get out of here!" The koffing went forward and picked up a strange looking rock with his mouth, and they both fled into a nearby cave.

"…Oh, NO! My relic fragment!" Serge said "I can't just let them take it from me!" He said, running after them for a few seconds before slowing to a stop.

"But…I can't." He said sadly, looking like he was trying to muster the courage. "Floyd – I could really use some help here." This startled me – I wasn't totally surprised, but on the other hand, I was bewildered. Fighting for someone outside of one of my close friends was never my thing in spite of religious obligations to do for others with righteous duty – I just wasn't that brave or tough, and besides...

"But what can I do?!" He said "I've got no idea how to fight as a snivy! I wasn't even good at the whole fighting thing as a human! Can't you just blow fire on them or something?!"

"Come on – just come with me!" Serge said, thinking to himself. "Look, you don't have to do any fighting, just make sure I get out of the cave OK if things go badly."

"But, I just got here, I just got a new body, and I am hopelessly confused and baffled about this whole scenario! Got way too much on my mind! My friends and family are surely worried sick, and..." I trailed off, putting aside panicky thoughts for more rational ones. "Right, if I do this for you, you will pledge to give me additional support, within reason of course, in this new world and help me get home, got it?! Within reason, like I said..."

"...Deal, just please back me up – it'll be the best for the both of us." Serge said, "Now hurry, let's go!"

"Ok, fine, but you will have to protect me if I get attacked – I haven't a scooby on how to defend myself from pokemon, as a pokemon." I said, sighing. "And you should really have built up more courage if you really want to be an explorer Serge!" I said as we ran together into the fairly small looking cave.

It smelled pretty bad inside, like the stench of a particularly smelly seaside, covered with seaweed. The rock walls that formed the cave's walls and roof were heavily covered in foreign looking lichen and moss, adding to the smell. The crashing waves from the beach echoed hypnotically inside the cave, and little scuttling noises cold be heard occasionally be heard.

"Ugh, this stinks!" I complained to Serge. "How big is this damn cave? It feels like the stench itself is making me feel dirty – I'm so getting a shower when I get to your civilization…you pokemon do have showers, right?" I said, continuing to whine and moan.

"Nope, this is a tiny cave. Fortunately, it's a dead end, so they can't escape us when we get down there - probably a stupid mistake on their part. Oh and there's a…"

"Serge!" I said to him and pointed dramatically into the cave, and hid behind Serge. "Something moved!" I couldn't quite tell what it was, but I'm pretty sure it was a pokemon – something I didn't want to see – those that live in the wild were far more likely to be hostile, at least in my world it was the case.

"Oh, calm down, it's just a shellos." Serge said. "Shouldn't pose a threat…" He said, but the shellos started moving towards us, not looking to happy.

"I think we kind of ran into his house, I don't blame him for being annoyed – can we just go back until it does something nasty?" I said, being a bit worried – I had no idea how I would take a pokemon attack, should I get hit by one.

"Ok, now, let's see…." Serge said, and dodged the incoming bubbles that the shellos shot at him, and ran in, and hit it with a full-force tackle. It fell back, and with a scared look, moved under a rock. "Ok, that was easy!" He said, looking pleased with himself.

"Well done – I think you'd make a good explorer – you seem to know how to defend yourself just fine, you just need to work up the balls to fight for your artifact thing!" I said and stumbled a bit. "Ugh, kind of awkward walking in this new body, and hopefully I won't stay long enough to get used to it." I said, trying to adjust to my shorter legs and my vastly different body shape. Serge smiled and shook his head.

"Oh, quite complaining, you!" He said chuckling "Wait, I hear voices up ahead…" He said and listened in. I could hear them as well – I'm pretty sure it was koffing and zubat.

"Wait, so this is a rare artefact we nabbed Koffing?" The zubat asked him with excitement in his voice as we eavesdropped on them carefully.

"Oh yes – I think this could sell for a few grand! Now, if only we ran the other way instead of this cave – aw well, the cyndaquil looked incompetent, and the snivy completely insane – we shouldn't have any problems getting by them if they are still at the be…"

"Give that back, now!" Serge said, as I cautiously followed him from behind, seeing the two of them "It's not yours, now, hand it over!"

"Let's see…how about…NO!" The zubat said, and started laughing hysterically, as if he heard the world's funniest joke. "It's ours now, and you can't do anything about it!"

"Well…" Serge said, trying to muster courage. "Well, I won't let you leave the cave without giving me the relic fragment!" He said, standing in front of the only way out of the cave.

"So, that's how it's going to be?" The koffing said, chuckling a bit "In that case, well, we'll just have to knock you aside, then we'll leave – this should be nothing more than a mi…."

"Of, for the love of...just give him the fucking rock back! I did NOT come here through all this bloody lichen and stench to not see Serge get his artifact back – now give it to him!" I said – there was something infuriating about the pair of them – their voices were a high screech and a low, stupid sounding one to Zubat and Koffing respectively. It was exactly like the sort of voice that people would use if they were imitating someone stupid and annoying.

"Ok, have it your way – let's go Zubat!" The Koffing said, and they slowly moved towards us, with caution.

"Oh no…" Serge said, looking a bit worried "What if they're stronger than me?"

"Serge, if you can't have the courage to take them on, then how are you going to have the courage to explore dangerous and unheard of lands? I like you, and I would want to see you doing well as an explorer – you can do this, they're probably just a couple of good who are all talk and no substance." I said, trying to motivate him, which seemed to work – he looked at me and nodded.

"Yeeaarrhhh!" The zubat yelled and charged towards Serge. Serge didn't seem like he was going to get out of the way in time, so I pushed him out of the way of Zubat's attack, and saw him crash into the wall, and ended up being completely dazed.

"Oh, zubat, you idiot! Well, I'll teach you both a lesson as I choke you with my fumes!" Koffing said, and smoke leaked from his pores. Nice of him to announce the attack for us!

"Serge, use some kind of fiery attack here, and you've practically beat him!" I said to Serge quickly.

"It will be quite a display." Serge responded, and blew flames at him – it didn't seem to be that strong or hot, but when the flames connected with the smog, there was quite a bit explosion that rattled my ears, making me crouch instinctivly. Serge staggered back, but Koffing stood no chance, and was immediately sent unconscious.

"And there you go Serge! That wasn't too hard, right? Like I said, just a couple of idiots who didn't know what they were up against, haha! Oh, you're wee, uh, ruin piece, it's over there." I said, pointing to it, lying on the floor by itself as Serge went to collect it.

"Good, it's not damaged." Serge said, inspecting it "Let's head out of this place – the stinks even getting to me." We both walked out of the cave, to see that the day was drawing to a close – a rather beautiful sunset was across the sea, as the sun started sinking below the horizon, making the sky even more picturesque than the last time I looked.

"Say…Floyd, I was thinking about this recently." Serge said, and I turned to look at him. "I wouldn't have had the courage to stand up to them, and with you there, I think you also allowed me to beat them and reclaim my fragment."

"Even though I didn't actually fight?" I said, giving him a look of curiosity. "It was all on you, you're far braver than I am. Well, you had more motivation at least..."

"Well, in short, I couldn't do it if you weren't there." He said and shrugged. "Besides, it's not exactly something that I want to do alone – matter of fact, it's often advised that you shouldn't explore alone – if one pokemon gets badly injured or knocked out, the other one can help the injured one get to safety. Not to mention the guild have recently started accepting duos into their ranks, instead of pairing up people randomly for assignments." I already knew what Serge was going to ask me, so I just decided to beat him to the punch and get it over with – the answer to him would be an obvious, but a nice 'no'.

"Hey, hey Serge - I appreciate your concerns about exploring, and wanting me to form a team with you, and I hate to sound arrogant or selfish, but I have my own problems to figure out – such as to discovering how and why I became a pokemon and ended up on this world, and how to get back to my good old life. I'm sorry Serge." I said. While I stand by my words, I did ultimately feel a wee bit sorry for Serge – he was a nice guy, and I felt a little bit bad for turning him down, but I had no plans to stay in this world for long, and I would be conducting a full-on investigation of what happened tomorrow. Serge looked deep in thought once more.

"Well, Floyd – do you have anywhere to stay? Or any starting point on how to figure out how to get back?" Serge asked me.

"No…." I said sadly – he was right – I mean, I can investigate all I like, but if the locals of the civilization can't help me, then I would be at a total loss.

"I was thinking…if in this guild we go exploring, we can travel across distant lands and unknown territory." Serge said, looking enthusiastic about this.

"I'm not following this." I said forcefully. "Explain why throwing myself into lethal danger on a frequent basis could possibly help me – I mean, granted I hate being a pokemon, but it IS better than dying."

"I was getting to that crazy guy!" Serge said, and continued calmly. "Well, what if we end up making a discovery on these explorations that could help get you home? I mean, it's very possible that on one of our explorations, we find information on how to get you home? It's unknown territory, and the answer will be in this world one way or another…I'd say it's your best shot."

"Fine!" I said, grumbling. It felt like a psychological defeat, buthe was right – it was the best chance of me going home, and among the discoveries that the guild makes, I can quite possibly find my answers that way – a discovery that answers my questions could be right around the corner! "I can't exactly refute your logic – though where are we going to stay? I am NOT sleeping rough like a common pokemon! I am civilized you know!"

"Don't worry, we'll be staying at The Wigglytuff Guild, should we get accepted as apprentices – they'll also provide food and the like." Serge continued to explain of what to expect of the guild.

"Wait, that sounds not too different from joining the army – it's based around getting in danger to protect people, and you stay in the barracks, er, guild, and you get fed there. I never liked the thought of joining the army, or anything like it…but it's my only real option – I'm in. I just hope you're happy that you talked me into it." Serge looked very pleased.

"Wow, I am very grateful for this – I feel as though I will achieve far greater things when you're with me to support me and the like." Serge said, smiling broadly – I could tell he was waiting for someone to form an exploration team for a long time, perhaps even before this guild announced that it was opened for duos.

"Keep in mind, Serge – the first opportunity I get a chance to return home to see my family and friends, I will, and I'll have no intentions of ever coming back – understand?" I said. I was as blunt as a sledgehammer when I said that – perhaps not the best thing to say, but I think it would be kinder being blunt now, instead of giving very subtle hints about my strong desire to return home, and suddenly leave him in his time of need. Serge's smile faded very slightly.

"Of course." He said and nodded "Now…" he said and sat down on the sandy beach, and I sat on a rock next to him. "I think they require a team name for duos for easier referencing."

"Team Conviction." I said on a whim without really thinking about it much, but after a few seconds of Serge looking at me oddly, thinking I was referring to criminals most likely, I came up with a explanation. "Well, I mean, we really have to have real big convictions if we are to follow through with this – I strongly believe that if I am to get home again, this will be the starting point, and the belief that there is a way home for me and that I can make it there – that conviction will never falter. I need to see my people back home, and they probably need to see me again as well. I got in here, I can surely get out – I trust your conviction to become a top of the class, rich and famous explorer is also there?"

"You know what, I think I like that too Floyd." Serge said, looking at his ruin fragment or whatever the damn thing was called. "This has been nagging me for too long now, and I'd say with you, it's about time I really did something about it." A bunch of krabbies had started blowing bubbles on the beach, leaving us alone – it made the setting sun look incredibly pretty, but why they were doing that, I had no idea. Some kind of mating ritual probably, as they didn't seem to be quite attentive as Serge was

"Well – we might as well face up to joining the guild Floyd – let's head and make Team Conviction a reality, eh?" Serge said and started walking towards town, with me just behind him. Indeed, I hardly expected things to turn out like this, even after discovering I was a pokemon, but this was at least a start I guess. I could save my whining and moaning for now at least, unless we get turned down from the guild – it sounded a really picky and intimidating place from the way Serge was talking about it.

"Haha, what sort of self-indulgent twat would have the building of his guild literally built in his image?!" I said, looking at the building in front of me. Standing by the side of them were two massive flaming torches that lit up the guild from the side. It was becoming quite necessary, as it was beginning to get dark, and it would probably close for the night soon. The building itself seemed to look like a tent at the bottom half, and at the top half, was built to look like the top half of a wigglytuff. In all honestly, it didn't look at all like an exploration base, let alone one of a high standard, and more like something you'd see in a theme park. I guess getting home wasn't as likely as I expected.

"That's it? It looks like a candy stall at a carnival, and it's tiny! How's that supposed to be the host of a famous guild?!" I said "You really think your hopes and dreams of becoming an explorer lies in there?! I'd look elsewhere, seriously."

"Don't most people build buildings in their image in the human world?" Serge asked. Of course – it was an entirely different culture here in this pokemon land – I could hardly expect them to live by the British culture at all. Perhaps this was considered the norm here – I might as well warm up to it, because I could be here for a while. The thought of that made me shudder.

"Very rarely…" I said to Serge, pausing for a bit, inspecting the building in front of me. "So…do we knock on the portcullis, or just wait until tomorrow?" I said, pointing to the entrance of the guild.

"We'll get their attention with this buzzer here." He said, walking over to a fairly large red button, yet refusing to push it.

"You think they'll be pissed at us buzzing them so late?"

"Err..." Serge turned around somewhat nervously, resting his hand on the buzzer until he was fully turned around. "Probably, oh...I'm not sure about this actually"

"Oh come on! I mean, just look at the damn place – I highly doubt they'd be that brutal and serious!" I said, being a bit cockier than usual. "And besides, if you don't have the guts to buzz a simple buzzer and take their potential pissed off rants, then I don't know how you'd make it as an explorer. Nothing terrible will happen, they'll just yell at you at the very worst. Just do it man!"

"...Alright then I will!" He said and pushed, making a very faint buzzing sound, that I assumed was louder inside the guild building itself. There was some kind of periscope to my right that I didn't notice before, and I soon figured out that it was used to check people at their front door.

"It's, err...it's am immigrant, Loudred." A young voice heard through the periscope shaft faintly, obviously not having the means or common sense to be able to shut out the noise properly. "An immigrant and a cyndaquil."

"Must have came from thousands of miles away – go tell him to piss off or something. He's probably just blundering around not knowing what's what here." A deeper and far louder voice said, who didn't seem to be too happy about this. Their voices had no defined accents what so ever, but I could only guess that was due to different vocal structures that was distinct to their species. "Well, go tell them that we're not a hotel or a tourist information booth!"

"I already heard you, and we know what this place is." I said out loud, wondering if they could hear us.

"The Wigglytuff Guild only accepts those from the four main towns of the land – country dwellers and foreigners are not allowed in at this moment." The deeper voice said, which I assumed was the loudred. I did wonder if using first names was only for referring friends to in private, and mentioning the species name was the formal way in this world – sounds even more like the military than I thought!

"Err, there's not a rule against that, it says here that anyone who is thirteen or over can at least be-" But the softer voice was suddenly cut off my Loudred yelling.

"DIGLETT! Ugh, fine, but I want to speak to the cyndaquil." Loudred said loudly as he sounded frustrated – he sounded paranoid as hell to say the least.

"Er, yes?" Serge said, still sounding nervous. I gave him an encouraging tap on his shoulder to try and keep his confidence. "Well, I'll just state our business now."

"If you're a salesman or survey taker, then you can fuck off. It's for your own safety, really – the guildmaster is sick to the teeth of them, and I don't know how much longer before he completely snaps at them." This seemed a little unprofessional of him dropping a curse like that – it was starting to give me even more second thoughts about this.

"No, we're applying to join as a duo as explorers." Serge said, finally breaking the proper news to them.

"Gah, one second..." He said and I heard footsteps that gradually grew fainter, before Diglett piped up again.

"Never mind him, he's had a pretty bad day. Though coming this late? Not cool!" He said to us before a third voice sounded below.

"What's going on here?!" For some reason, I could imagine a talking bird speaking like this – it had quite a similar voice to the school parrot that was in my primary school many years back.

"We have two potential recruits here, but one of them isn't from around here, to say the least." Loudred said. "I wouldn't recommend it Chatot."

"You do not decide who gets in and who doesn't, but I can see where you're coming from...oh, it's a snivy!" Chatot said, sounding a lot older than the other two, almost as old as my dad! "Look, I agree with you, this is really kind of risky, give me a moment to consider precautions for myself if I am to escort him into the guild."

"Wasn't 'better safe than sorry' one of your important phrases that you taught us?!" Loudred said, clearly not wanting me in at all, but Chatot did sound like that he had a position of power in the guild, maybe second in command or something.

"In moderation, Loudred! You do realise that working with the guild is highly dangerous in its self?! Look, I don't exactly trust him either, but he's not carrying anything alien on him – barely a threat. Besides, they'll probably get turned down, no reason to worry!" What a back handed compliment – I don't think I liked Chatot either, but at least he was remaining professional.

"I'm right here you know!" I called down, but got no response. Loudred continued to protest with Diglett staying very quiet until Chatot eventually snapped.

"Ok, that does it!" He yelled. "I'll check with the guild master – I would agree that it's a risky move, but there has never been an immigrant who has wanted access inside the guild. The guild master will know what to do! It's his guild after all." I waited a few tense moments, until I heard a warm voice speak, that sounded just a little bit crazy somehow.

"Well, I think you are paranoid." It said, sounding very friendly, almost to the point of being creepy "After all, this could be a fantastic move for my guild – who knows what skills he will bring from abroad?"

"Guildmaster, Loudred has a point – how can we know if they are trustworthy?"

"Just let him in." The warm voice said. "I'll speak to them personally." This voice was probably Wigglytuff, but I couldn't decide if he was more friendly or creepy sounding – perhaps both in equal measure.

"Fine, but I will keep a close eye on him, and I'm sure Loudred will be happy to do so as well." The bird-like voice said, somewhat smugly. I looked in front and saw the portcullis open up slowly in front of me. "Just until he settles in, and maybe a bit more after that."

Well, it seems like I was about to enter a building with a racist pig, an untrusting paranoid bird, a young teenager who looked sounded like he barely just joined, and a kooky guildmaster. Fucking brilliant. The portcullis soon opened and we were called in by Chatot, and as we soon saw, the guild headquarters were far bigger than it looked – it was all underground by the looks of things as we climbed down together, which was tough with these stubbier limbs.

"Struggling down a ladder? You'll have to by physically more able than that if you want to stay here! Chop chop!" Chatot said, flying past us as we landed on the floor.

We walked inside, and down the ladder together; it wasn't a comfortable experience at all. It seemed far more serious and intimidating than I initially thought, with the unfriendly reception we received. I landed on the first basement floor just after Serge, and saw a couple of pokemon talking – a sunflora and a corphish – who looked like they had been working very hard today, and looked exhausted.

"Oh my gosh!" The sunflora said, sounding surprised, but in a happy way. "Are you two applying for the guild?" She seemed to be the first guild member I properly met, excluding Chatot who just flew past us, and she seemed friendly enough – hopefully the majority would be as welcoming as her.

"Yes we are! I'm Serge, and this is Floyd." He said, gesturing to me. "We're Team Conviction, according to Floyd here." I gave him an odd look.

"Hey hey! Good to see more recruits coming in!" The corphish said happily, clicking his pincers a few times. "And by the way, mid if I have a quick word with Floyd?" He said to Serge politely.

"I guess…" He didn't seem to have lot of confidence in the corphish, and neither was I. I walked over to him anyway, wondering if he wanted something from me, or to give me some passive racial abuse. I then decided to not tell anyone else about my former human status – not that I needed people thinking I was insane, since I was doubting whether I even convinced Serge.

"Hey Floyd…just to let you know, that a few guild members might not be so…accepting of your current status. Y'know, coming from way overseas and stuff." It said to me. "Especially Loudred – he has had a seething hatred towards immigrants such as yourself. Chatot and Dugtrio are also quite paranoid around them.

"As I experienced. Still, I'm picky about who I talk to, so I don't think it'll be a problem."

"Everyone else should be very nice to you – please to meet you though, and I hope you get in – you seem nice enough." He said and held out his claw, which I promptly look, and shook Sunflora's hand...leaf as well.

"Come on over Serge!" Corphish said, and we had a brief discussion together. Listening to the sort of stuff that Corphish and Sunflora do was actually quite interesting, but nor was it what I really wanted to do. I felt forced into applying for the guild, due to my circumstances, which didn't make me happy at all – it all sounded so dangerous, being attacked almost daily by less civilized pokemon that acted like common animals. I couldn't bring myself to believe I'd actually die here – I'm not even twenty-one years old yet! Though my birthday would be in about a month's time – to think I might have to celebrate it with these guys.

"Ahem!" I heard that bird-like voice behind me, which turned out to be Chatot, who Corphish mentioned to me as being the duty manager of the guild. "The Guild master will see you now." He drawled, clearly thinking that we were unworthy of setting foot inside the guild building. I scowled just a little bit, as he escorted us into the Guild master's quarters – receiving a nasty look from Loudred along the way, of which I shot him a faked puzzled look back as I walked into Wigglytuff's room.

Upon seeing Guild Master Wigglytuff, it looked quite difficult to take him seriously – in all honestly, he looked more like a circus performer rather than a top-of-the-range explorer. I was perhaps being a bit judgemental of him, but I just couldn't imagine him going into perilous situation, and coming out on top. In the room was vast amounts of treasure and artifacts and all manner of wealth – maybe he was the real deal after all if he was this rich!

"Welcome friends!" Wigglytuff said, in a loud but friendly showmanship style. "To The Wigglytuff guild! I heard you pair wanted to form an exploration team! Makes me very happy!" Wigglytuff continued to say, with an unshaken cheeriness in his voice.

"Er…yes, yes we have – we are Team Conviction." Serge said – even he seemed to think Wigglytuff was odd. "We heard that you were looking for more recruits and started to accept duos to consistently work together."

"That we are!" He said happily. "Come now friendly friends, just sign this charter and you'll be an official exploration team of The Wigglytuff Guild!" I thought this was suspiciously easy.

"And there's…no catches or tests?" I said to Wigglytuff – I was never the best at telling what people were thinking, but trying to tell what Wigglytuff was thinking was like trying to punch down a steel wall – impossible!

"Not at all! You're work will be starting tomorrow!" He said, and took Serge's signed charter "Ok, that's it official! YOOM-TAH!" Wigglytuff yelled and jumped in the air, and put the charter in a cabinet, and I started to really wonder if this was some sort of strange joke by him.

"Here is your official Wigglytuff Guild Exploration team starter kit!" He said, and handed us a fairly large box, which I promptly opened. Inside, there were two rucksacks, and I tried on one – it seemed to fit perfectly – a nice surprise really, and the other one seemed to fit Serge – it was almost like as if Wigglytuff specifically selected the rucksacks for us.

"Ok, there's a map here – now I can see this entire shitehole world I landed in." I mumbled, not really thinking too much about what I said, and instantly regretted it for the sake of letting terrible manners slip. Fortunately, only Serge heard, but he didn't seem happy either.

"Shh!" He whispered aggressively to me "Trust me, if they heard you, would not be welcome in this town ever again!" He continued in his hoarse whisper. "We are here – Treasure Town." Serge said and pointed to it on the map. I picked up the two badges that remained in the bag, which were, like the building, made literally in Wigglytuff's image – narcissistic disorder perhaps?

"What are these for Wigglytuff?" I asked politely, wondering if they served beyond mere trinkets.

"Ah, those signify that you are an official exploration team – going exploring and beating up criminals without one of those isn't legal. Fortunately, I can hand out licences in the form of those badges. Now, let's all be friendly friends!" Wigglytuff said, smiling very broadly.

"Is he high?" I whispered to Serge.

"Apparently, he's on a permanent one." He replied to me and chuckled.

"Come now – I will show you to your rooms." Chatot said from behind – he seemed politer and happier than usual, but I was guessing that was just due to being around Wigglytuff. We followed him out of Wigglytuff's 'office' and down a corridor into a room with two neat plies of straws and a window that I could see the moon when I looked out of it. It was hardly flattering, and I missed my bed at home already.

"Ok you two, this will be your room while you work for us" He drawled, sounding quite uninterested "There is some food left in the mess hall – Croagunk wasn't very hungry, so if you're hungry right now, you can eat Croagunk's meal" I immediately started heading to the mess hall – I was starving, and I can't sleep on an empty stomach. On the way there, I only saw Loudred, unfortunately.

"Damn, standards really are lowering. Snivy, why did you actually join the guild, what are you up to?" He said to me bitterly, which I replied with a smirk.

"Well, unlike your parents, I was given an actual name, and it's Floyd – pleased to meet you." I said, and sniggered a bit and walked into the mess hall, where I ate Croagunk's unwanted dinner – It was a lot nicer than I thought it'd be. Perhaps pokemon make for being good chefs after all. The mouth-watering steak and vegetables were delicious. I relished this, since it would probably end up being one of the few things I would enjoy in this world, but I couldn't help but wonder where the steak came from – perhaps there are regular animals here as well, that apparently only existed to serve mankind according to the Arceus followers, and I really wanted to find out, but was too busy eating to bother asking Serge. One full stomach later, I returned to my room to meet up with Serge, who didn't eat nearly as much..

"Ah, you're back. Good thing they gave us beds, eh?" He said, fairly happily. "They're quite comfy."

"You call those beds?" I said, somewhat bewildered by Serge's lower standards. "Trust me, in the human world, we have proper beds, that I can sleep for over twelve hours a day on! Not just a pile of straw." I said, sounding arrogant once again, but I don't feel that it was misplaced or anything.

"Anyway, something I wanted to ask you – do you genuinely believe I was a human before?" I asked, I wanted to know if Serge was just playing along with me, or actually believed it.

"In all honesty Floyd…I'm finding it very hard to believe that's the case." He said to me, somewhat sadly. "But, you seem rather insistent on it, so for the time being, I will treat you like a human who's recently turned into a pokemon – and besides, a lot of weird stuff happens here, so it's entirely possible, even if it has been unheard of – I mean, who am I to say what's possible and what isn't?" Serge continued to tell me and rolled on his back. "I do wonder what will be in store for our first day of training?"

"Hopefully nothing too dangerous – I mean, with taking down criminals, that would be really satisfying and please my lord Dialga to legally help to carry out justice on a larger scale. Still, I'd get my ass kicked if I tried it now – just because we're qualified doesn't mean we're capable – yet." I said. I was worried about what would happen tomorrow, and I wasn't trying to hide it.

"Dialga?" Serge said, leading me to believe that this society hasn't even heard of Dialga, and possible even the other gods. I couldn't fault them per se, but religious discussions with other Dialgans, usually my dad, usually gave me moral guidance and comfort, but I'd find none of that there. I paused, looking at Serge, really not sure how to explain him well, but try I did.

"The lord and master who governs and maintains the flow of time itself and hands down moral guidance to us – well, to the human kind it seems. Maybe this civilization is really young, is it Serge?"

"Apparently only just over a hundred according to historians. And this Dialga guy...I'd really need to see him for myself."

"Let's not go down that road." I said before I'd start getting annoyed and dive head first into zealously defending my faith.

"You still seem worried about tomorrow Floyd. Look, I'm sure it'll be just fine – I doubt they'll throw us into the deep end." He said, trying to reassure me.

"I suppose so." I said to him. "Well, I'm going to want all my strength for tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep now…well, that moon shining in our window, and the fact that there's not even single glazing never mind double is going to make it harder for me to sleep, so I might as well try now. Goodnight Serge." I said, and rested on my 'bed' and tried to sleep.

I did notice that ever since I met Serge, he seemed to be hiding his rock from view for whatever reason – it obviously meant more to him than I thought. There were also two things on my mind as I slowly lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep. One, how was I considered an immigrant? Were snivys foreign to this land? Yes, that was probably it, and I could just ask Serge to make sure.

The second thing was far more troubling – a very short, but vivid memory, of just voices. One of them was mine, and I didn't recognize the other. I was yelling at him not to let go in this memory, and he was telling me that he won't, but eventually, he wasn't strong enough as I remember feeling myself get sucked into somewhere. I could remember how things felt and heard, though I couldn't remember what I saw. I remembered myself holding very tightly onto this mystery person's hand, and the strange force that was pulling me in. The scary thing was, it seemed like it was after the after-gig drinking I had with my band. I didn't recognize the voice belonging to any of my band members, which was odd, or anyone that I even remotely know. Perhaps he had something to do with this, but I've got no lead on him, so I might as well forget it.

Eventually, I fell into a deep sleep, which was quite an achievement with all the things on my mind, which seemed to make the open window and shining moon obsolete. I would say that this had been one of – no – THE worst day of my life so far, and the grim thing was, that many more bad days would likely come after this, and all I could do was to hang on to what I currently had – at least I'm not dead. Never thought Id be saying that for genuine comfort...


	2. Are You Settled In Yet?

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 2: Are You Settled In Yet?

"Guh…" I groaned, feeling very similar to when I woke up on the beach last night – the only difference was instead of sand, there was a very comforting blue carpet, and a voice I was really, really glad to hear.

"Good, he's finally awake – hey Floyd! Do you have any idea how much you were drinking last night buddy? You passed out here!" The voice said which stood on a pair of legs. It was very familiar, and I recognized him immediately – the guitarist in my band and my best friend! So all that shit I went through yesterday was just a dream?! Well, it all made logical sense – what sort of ridiculous scenario would turning into a pokemon and going into other dimensions would seem real to anyone aside from those Palkia worshipping spastics who actually think that they – no – every human actually has a pokemon soul powering it. Even the aspect of souls themselves seemed a bit silly to me.

"Omar!" I said, as he helped me to his feet. "Real happy to see you here! Man, I had the most horrifying dream last night – I turned into a fucking pokemon! No shit, never had any dreams where I wasn't...well, myself. Ugh, if I get dreams like that when I drink, I'm not touching it again! No way!"

"That's what they all say man, huh huh! I've had worse shit I've dreamt about – one time, me and Scott were turned into flies, and we got stuck on a spider web, and I saw the juices get sucked out of him, huh huh, it was brutal!" He said "Well, we dream about crazy shit me and you – the rest of the band members have returned home – great gig yesterday, looking forward to tonight's one."

"Oh absolutely." I said, and chuckled as I smiled broadly – I didn't even have a hangover from it all, lucky me! I was on a very good high right now – the dream seemed to make me appreciate my life even more than I already did. Gazing at my human hands, I twiddled my fingers, rather than dealing with the stubbier alternative I had in the dream as a snivy. 'Time for some bass playing', I thought to myself as I mad a grab for my bass to practice alongside Omar, who was now noddling on his guitar.

Me and Omar practised together for about an hour, trading his intense guitar licks with my bass ones. And yet, while we were practising, the memory me holding onto someone's hand, begging not to let go and getting sucked into somewhere still remained strong. I put the thought aside, thinking I still hadn't got over the rather horrible dream I had – it was of no importance to me now! Omar's cute little dratini had curled around him and nuzzled him gently while he played, making it slightly harder for him. I can't say I liked his dratini too much, for reasons I feel ashamed of – Omar was my best friend, but I couldn't help but think that the dratini was his best friend, which made me a little sad in a way.

"Oh, Floyd, look at the time – we have to meet the others at the Sneaky Pete's at six – it'll take half an hour to get down there" Omar said to me, pointing to the clock – it was quarter past 5...that time already?!

"How the hell is it that late…was I really sleeping until 4 in the bloody afternoon?!" I said with great surprise.

"No, Floyd, you woke up at 1. Time sure does fly, and you'd better get your stuff ready, I'm not going to be late because of you, huh huh!" Omar told me, as I hurriedly packed my stuff. How the hell did time go by THAT quickly?! I mean, time can fly, but surely not to this extent! It was creepy, yes, but it was hardly going to shatter my nerves about tonight's gig. Omar's dratini slithered back inside the house, waving to Omar with his tail, since she didn't like going in Omar's car as we left his flat. I got in Omar's car, and we drove through the bustling streets of Edinburgh, causing Omar mild frustration.

"I heard that you were training that dratini of yours more than ever." I said to him. "Does it not bother you seeing her get hurt in battle?"

"Floyd, you've been through this before man – like I've said many times, Dratini also enjoys it as a whole, and it's healthy for her – she wasn't getting much exercise before hand anyway, not to mention that dratinis recover from injuries really, really fast. If she really didn't like it, she'd let me know. But yeah, it is actually quite sad seeing her lose to one of the more brutal trainers – I really had to hold back from smacking one particularly harsh trainer in the face, as he forced me to leave her in a pokemon centre for a couple of days."

"Perhaps you should have – that trainer should have been taught a good lesson. By not doing anything, you've pretty much encouraged him to do it more, since he now knows-"

"Yeah, Dialga and all man, you've been through that with me as well. And even if I was religious – his chameleon would have probably burned me trying to defend him. Stupid idea really."

"Suppose..." I said, drumming my fingers on my knees – religious differences was the one big thing that Omar and I did not share – but I guess I can't complain too much about his atheism – better that than him getting sucked into a false and misleading religion like the Arceus following masses, with their bribery and blackmail of different afterlife tails of bliss and torture respectively.

Eventually, we all arrived at the Venue, where the other band members were there. We walked inside together, and quickly checked our instruments – they were all working fine. I sat down on the stage with Scott, our drummer.

"I can't believe we got a chance to support Prostitute Disfigurement. I guess you have a set-list that's more straight-up death metal instead of the more techy and proggy based stuff, right?" I asked Omar, taking my bass out of his car.

"Aye, we'll be starting with our most recently wrote song, 'Fifteen Minutes Left In Death-row.' It should please the sort of crowd that are coming." Scott said to me. "There not really here to see us in particular, after all."

"Should be a lot of fun, I'm giving it my all tonight." I said to him, and patted him on the back, smiling as I saw 'No Forgiveness' wasn't on our list tonight – that song talked shit about my faith, but it was something I put up with, albeit grudgingly.

Ten minutes later, people started coming into the venue – I didn't feel nervous at all. Matter of fact, I couldn't wait to deliver entertainment, and I hate to sound cocky, but I knew I was damn good at it. A live show is as much of a visual entertainment as a listening one, and I mentally prepared myself to briefly plan out the optimal degree of stage presence – too bad wild head banging was a bit too hard for me with some of these tough to play riffs, but I could make do with other tactics. Eventually we were ready, and I waited for Douglas to growl the first line of the song and have the rest of the band kick in – Scott, Omar, Douglas and I were a mighty force, at least in my eyes. I saw Douglas inhale as he held the microphone close to his mouth and heard…

"GET UP! You Lazy bastards! Chatot will give us a bollocking if you don't get up and report to the main area immediately! I am not being late for you two, and I say you have thirty seconds at the very most before you get smacked for it!"

"What the hell Douglas?! That's not the lyrics…" I said, and the whole place became a blur, and I found myself gently fall on my front on the stage, where I passed out, but I could still hear voices.

"Floyd…time to get up…" I heard a smoother voice said, as my eyes fluttered, and looked around – the voice sounded a bit younger than my band – did I really pass out on stage? The horrible realisation started to hit me when my eyes fluttered, and I was looking at a cyndaquil. No doubts remained – it was Serge for sure – I merely dreamed about what the day after could have been like. Me turning into a pokemon – it was real.

"N…no…NOO!" I said and leapt to my feet "It was just a dream?! I woke up – and I'm STILL a pokemon?!" My eyes became watery, as I began accepting the truth "My life…was so beautiful back there…with the humans, with the band, with..." I said, and Serge guided me to the main area. I was too miserable to even try to hide my misery, as I walked into the main area, where everyone was waiting.

"Ah, so everyone's finally here – just in time – a full guild attendance, good good!" Chatot said happily, as he looked at everyone, giving me a surprised look at my sad looking expression.

"Full guild attendance? That's more than what I can say for my World Of Warcraft guild at least." I muttered to myself, forcing a bit of humour out to try and cheer my self up until the morning meeting was over. Chatot glared at me, clearly because I didn't look as happy as the other smiling guild members. I got the hint and put on a very forced and faked smile, as I saw Wigglytuff came striding, almost bouncing out of his office.

"Ok, guild, lets start off with our morning words of encouragement!" Chatot said loudly and proudly "Number one!"

"DON'T SHIRK WORK!" The rest of the guild yelled in unison. Me and Serge said it quietly straight afterwards, but nobody seemed to notice, but to be fair, it was the first time we had ever came to the guild before, so we didn't know what the 'words of encouragement' were.

"Number two!" Chatot said loudly, holding his wings up, signalling everyone to scream the following.

"RUN AWAY AND PAY!" Everyone said this again apart from myself – this wasn't encouragement to me – this was an outright threat! I never thought joining the guild was a very good idea to begin with, and now my initial thoughts and fears about this guild were true – this was essentially the military I was joining here!

"And finally, number three, let's make this even louder!"

"SMILES GO FOR MILES!" Too bad I wasn't in a position or mood to smile right now, well, I still had the forced smile on my face, but it was painful to hold. I saw the guild get to their duties. We wandered off in their general direction until we were stopped Chatot.

"Oh Team Conviction! You have no idea what to do – you haven't been assigned your task for today!" He said hastily to us.

"Oh, of course" Serge said and chuckled slightly "So, what are we to do today Chatot?" Serge asked, being very polite to him. There was something about Chatot that I really didn't like, and from the way he looked at me, there was something about me that he didn't like. Which reminded me about the fact that I was considered an immigrant in these parts. I decided not to ask Chatot – he would probably assume I was crazy to not know where I'm from, or at least, where the guild thought I was from.

"OK, now, you see there is a spoink who lost the orb on top of his head, and he has requested that one of the guild teams should recover it." Chatot said to us. Serge didn't seem impressed at this fairly simple sounding task.

"What, so we're just picking up something that some pokemon lost in his travels?" Serge said, sounding unimpressed.

"Oh, nonono Chatot, that's a wonderful first task for us! Testing the waters, eh?" I said, happy that we had a simple sounding task, and I chuckled a small bit.

"Floyd, that was the first good thought you've had in this guild, unlike all the other times – It was as clear as crystal that your smile was faked back there, and I hope for your sake that the guildmaster didn't pick up on your fake smile. But hopefully, this is a sign that you are starting to redeem yourself – you will make sure that is the case, right? Anyway, Serge, don't you realise how important the orb is to the spoink? Spoinks get incredibly depressed without it, eventually leading into insanity – suicide from incidents like this are not unheard of, so this is not 'picking up something that some pokemon lost in his travels', this could ultimately save a pokemon from going completely crazy, does that make you feel important Serge?!" Chatot ranted on and on for a bit before Serge put up his hand.

"Ok, Ok, we'll get going" Serge said, sounding a wee bit frustrated with the way Chatot was speaking to them.

"Serge, we have no idea where it could be – Chatot, do you know the rough whereabouts of where it was dropped" I asked

"Perhaps I'll one day think good of you Floyd – it's at The Drenched Bluff." Chatot said, and pointed on the map on the wall, which was the exact same design as the map that Wigglytuff gave us. "Just west of here, not far. Well, get to it!" Chatot ordered. "And before you go off – Floyd, you really, really need to look more cheerful in front of our guildmaster – his fury towards everyone in the guild, including myself, is actually terrifying, trust me! Don't have that long face again next time, got it?!"

"Sir!" Serge said to Chatot with respect and we walked outside of the guild and headed to The Drenched Bluff. It was a short, but somewhat pleasant walk there – the sun seemed to be hot, but I didn't mind it – perhaps it was due to the fact that I became a snivy. Matter of fact, all the sun was making me feel a bit hyper, and I was grinning broadly.

"So, Floyd, you look oddly happy all of a sudden" Serge said to me "You were almost crying when you woke up."

"I have absolutely no idea." I said to him. "And while I still feel happy, it creeps me out – quite possibly the strangest mix of emotions ever. Although I have a theory – see this leaf on my tail here, and this leaf on my head, which seems to have replaced my awesome hair – perhaps it's drawing energy from the sun, and through photosynthesis, I am getting energy that way, which is making me hyper as shit. I am partially a plant now, after all." My theory made sense to me, but I'm no biology expert on pokemon, far from it.

"An excuse for you starting to settle in nicely?" Serge said grinning, as we saw The Drenched Bluff – we were almost there.

"No!" I said. "I'm have no plans of settling in here, now, let's just go to this bluff." I said, wondering why they literally called it 'The Drenched Bluff' instead of giving it a proper name.

"Alright, let's do this quick, well, and good! GO!" I said, still feeling somewhat uncomfortable at my own behaviour – it was as if I had a few dark rum/red bull mixes, my favourite drink back in the human world. It was also clearly affecting my choice of words, it would seem.

"Glad to see you're finally enjoying yourself!" Serge said as we walked inside, me following right behind him. I found out why it was called 'drenched bluff' it was wet to say the least – I was sure that it must have had something to do with the sea, but I was sure it had to have been more than crashing waves. They should have sent a geologist here instead of me, or perhaps a mountaineer or rock climber, since it was becoming tough to scale the rocks, especially with less able arms.

"I don't like this place at all, but it's our job, we should do this well." Serge said, shivering slightly from the damp conditions, obviously minding it more than I was "The sooner we get this done the…" Serge was cut off when two anorith ambushed him with their sharp claws, leaving two nasty looking cuts across his body.

"ARGH!" He yelled and flames erupted from has back – he was ready to fight, and immediately blew flames at them, making one of them flee in fear.

"Get 'em Serge!" I yelled in support, as I saw him tackle one of them, sending it scuttling away, but the other one went in for another attack, leaving an even nastier cut across Serge's torso. He worst was still coming though – the one that scuttled away was obviously just trying to get help from his friends, and now, we were facing four anorith and a lileep – the chips were certainly down now!

"What the hell?! I thought these were extinct!" I yelled, just noticing that in my world, they were wiped out millions of years ago "Oh, you are fucking me! Who's idea for a 'starters job' was this?! Serge, we should probably just run!" I said, just staring at them, advancing on the injured Serge

"Er…Floyd, a little help here?" Serge said, as he continued keeping them at bay by breathing fire at them, but I knew he couldn't keep that up for long.

"But what can I do?!" I screamed again, much like I did yesterday. "Excuse me while I watch a documentary on 'how to fight as a snivy!'"

"Violence is normal here out of town, now, please don't let your friend get cut to pieces!" Serge said, narrowly dodging a pair of anorith that lunged at him, but the lileep then spewed Acid on Serge, causing him terrible pain.

"AAAHHH!" He yelled, and screamed even louder when an anorith scratched his softened skin, leaving a nasty gash, that looked like it was bleeding quite badly. I looked at the situation – I never considered Serge a friend per se, but I had no choice but to deal and confront this territorial savagery, colleague or friend. Picking up a fairly large rock, or at least it seemed large with my significantly smaller body and threw it at one of the anorith with as much force as I could muster.

"How's that?!" I yelled, at them, who didn't seem to be put off by the thrown rock too much. "Serge, I think blowing fire at them is a bit more effective!" However, Serge's fire blowing attacks were starting to weaken due to pain and exhaustion.

"Not effective enough..." Serge said rather weakly, small clumps of fur falling off from having acid sprayed on him, still groaning in pain. "Surely you can fight somehow!"

"I did say I didn't know!" I said, starting to panic, and was highly tempted to flee, hoping that Serge would come with me.

"Dammit Floyd, if you can't do much against these malnourished pokemon, then I doubt you'll ever get home!" I glared at him as we stepped back. Gritting my teeth, I knew he was right – I can have all the intentions and brains in the world, but unless I learn how to defend myself here, I may never get home.

"Hey, fuckers!" I yelled at them, trying to buy time until I could think of something that might actually work. They didn't react, but I didn't care as I tried searching for instinctual techniques that would be exclusive to snivys – if I can't fight as a human... "The line has been drawn here, this far, no further, bla bla...err...have at thee!" I said and leapt up and it was by thrusting myself into danger where I was able to tap into snivy-specific ways I could defend myself in a fight, and it would seem that the leaf on my tail was, bizarrely, a dangerous weapon. I swung the leaf with great force, and as the instincts told me, it left a heavy gash in it's thick exoskeleton, causing it to screech in agony and flee for its life, alongside two others, leaving only one left; it's courage seemed to be more robust than the rest, but it's threat was still vastly diminished.

"Floyd, that was amazing!" Serge said, looking happier as he tacked the last anorith, clearly achieving a second wind, sending it scuttling away in , leaving only the lileep. Dodging another dangerous spray of acid, I put the leaf on my head to use and struck at its 'neck', going for accuracy over brute force, striking where I think it's defences would be the weakest. At this point, I had entered a state of mind, directed only towards total concentration in combat – avoiding the assailants attack while striking back twice as hard. It wasn't necessary though, as the lileep already started backing off, which lead me to find out why we were sent here on our first ever task – they didn't seem to fight back much after a good whack.

"Holy shit! Did uh, did we just beat five of them off at once?!" I turned around, asking Serge, who seemed very pleased.

"Yes, Floyd, I reckon we're going to get really good at this in time – give it a few years, and we might already be famous!" Poor deluded sod, he'd have to take the bigger part of that journey without me, but his determination to do this was really something to behold. With wounds like his, I'd do an about turn on this exploration thing, but I never really had much choice in the matter if I wanted to hold on to my only possible path of salvation. "Sorry I wasn't doing that well here – the damp conditions really run me down." He held onto his wounds, trying to stem the bleeding as much as possible – it wasn't a dangerous wound, but it was far from mild.

"It was weird though – these two leaves – LEAVES!" I gestured at both of them. "How on earth did they cause those sorts of gashes on those not-so-extinct pokemon?! They're not exactly bladed...weapons..." I said, thinking about it – indeed I used then like bladed weapons attached to my tail and head – a battle-axe and sword respectively. I had the feeling that they would be going through very heavy usage throughout my time here.

"It gets even better!" Serge said, holding up some kind of orb with his right arm and holding his wounds with his left – surely that was Spoink's orb!

"Fucking brilliant!" I yelled, looking at it "Let's get back to the guild, so we can relish our first victory!" I said, though I was still deeply concerned about the future though – I wasn't any closer to discovering how I came here, how I became a pokemon, and how to get back. Also, that was viewed as an easy assignment by Chatot – I would have to toughen and learn pretty damn fast to stay afloat in this dangerous world.

The sun was starting to sink in the sky, but there was still plenty of daylight, as evening slowly approached as Serge and I triumphantly walked back to the guild. Serge clutching Spoink's orb in his hand in victory before turning to me.

"Well, that went well, though it'd be even better if the place wasn't so rocky and damp." Serge said, still shivering slightly, but he looked like he was warming up. "It makes it harder for me to blow fire at them, as you can probably guess.

"Hey, you're still a far better fighter than I'll ever be, haha!" I said to Serge. "Oh, and there was something I wanted to ask you before we get back to the guild – why am I considered an immigrant?" I asked him, thinking of all the comments that Loudred and Chatot made.

"You REALLY aren't from around here are you – well, perhaps you are actually from a different world." Serge said, perhaps seeing some sense in what I was saying when I told him I was a human, and quite possibly from a completely different world. "Anyway, well, a few types of pokemon, such as snivys and tepigs, have been moving over here from across the seas. Well, that's what the authorities say anyway, and there has been very mixed reactions to all of this – some are paranoid as hell about it."

"Well!" I said, smiling smugly "I'm more foreign than they think. Too bad I'm no closer to finding my way home again." I said, suddenly looking a lot sadder "What if I never find my way home? What if I'm stuck in this rotted shitehole forever? What if I never see my friends and family again?"

"Well, I'm sure the answer will be out there somewhere Floyd." Serge said, looking like he was hiding his annoyance for me calling his world a 'rotted shitehole', which was understandable. By the time we returned to the wigglytuff, evening was upon us. I looked behind us, and saw the sun going down behind us – I deliberately tried to look badass as I walked into the guild, trying to impress Bidoof who was watching us.

"By golly, you look like you succeeded on your very first mission – well done! I wish I did…" Bidoof said to us, looking a wee bit sad. "I've been in the guild a whole month, and most of the time, I'm only trusted with basic errands. Aside from one time, I felt as though I wasn't of much help at all."

"Ah, chillax Bidoof – your time will come when you become something great, I'm sure of it. What was that one time anyway?" I asked Bidoof, wanting to try and cheer him up – he was definitely among the guilds friendlier members along with Sunflora and Corphish.

"I explored a cave and found a very rare species of pokemon that was only have proven to exist five years ago." He said, and Serge spluttered in shock, and it was the way how he rather casually announced it to us that made me almost do the same.

"What?! How? Holy croutons, now THAT is something special! What species did you find?" Serge said, being highly impressed with Bidoof's accomplishment, and, well, so was I! He probably lucked out massively, but for someone to find something so elusive.

"Whatever that it was that you found, if it is that elusive or rare or whatever, they should really be giving you more than just simple errands, unless that's what you wanted of course." I asked Bidoof, who looked a bit watery eyed at our compliments – bless that wee guy, he only looked fifteen years of age.

"Aw...thanks guys!" He said, also blushing a bit. "As for the errands, well, I guess someone has to do them, yup yup. Well, you'd better go to Chatot now to tell him of your success!" We did as Bidoof advised and walked down the stairs to see Chatot, who was looking through a few papers, muttering to himself.

"Ah, I was expecting you two – I trust you recovered Spoink's orb." He said to us, looking quite stern.

"It's right here!" Serge said, taking it out of his bag, showing it triumphantly to Chatot.

"Excellent" Chatot said, and a Spoink came springing into the guild from behind us, looking very happy and excited.

"Is that my orb? Thank you Convition!" He said, springing up and down for joy, and put the large orb on his head using telekinesis to do so.

"Here you go!" Spoink said, and handed us what seemed like a lot of money. "2000 poke as promised on my notice!"

"Is that a lot Serge? It looks like it!" I asked, marvelling at the large amount of coins that the Spoink gave us, trying to guess the poke-pound ratio.

"It sure is Floyd! I really didn't think they'd be paying this much!" Serge said, grinning broadly at me, looking incredibly excited – hell, being rich while living in this hell-hole is better than being poor than staying here.

"Ahem, it seems like neither you two or Spoink know the rules of money distribution in the Wigglytuff guild – I'll be taking the money for distribution." He said to us, holding out his wings to take the money

"Wait a sec, do you mean we're not getting the 2000 poke?!" I said, sounding quite angry as he snatched the bag of money from Serge, and counted it.

"Ok, here's your pay!" He said, and handed over a measly 700 poke! I was quite furious, and for good reason! What a fucking rip-off!

"WHAT?! Only 35 percent?! We could have been KILLED out there! Dead! Deceased, or whatever!" I yelled at Chatot. "You have got to be shitting me..."

"No I am not 'shitting you'" Chatot said, looking very frustrated, grinding his beak slightly. "Part of that is to keep you, paying for your accommodation here, and feeding you at meal times, and to run the guild efficiently, and also, you think Wigglytuff just does this for the sake of helping pokemon in danger? He needs to make money as well, mainly to satisfy his perfect apple addiction, er, I didn't say that..." Chatot said, and cleared his throat before finishing off "Anyway, like it or lump it!" He said and walked away.

"…I mean, even 60% would still be passable, but 35% is just outright taking the piss!" I said, ranting on and on until my throat started to ache. "Indeed, I have joined the military..." I finished my rant with, sounding very bitter.

"Ah, it's not like we have to pay bills or anything - that 700 poke can be used to spend on anything we like, without worrying about essentials – that's all covered by the guild – it's not quite as bad as it sounds buddy!" I grumbled – he was right in a way, and I was in no position to argue. I heard a chime from down the stairs, as well as a lot of clamouring.

"Dinner has been served!" A voice said – it sounded like Chimeco's from what I remembered from yesterday evening as a load of cheers were heard from downstairs, as well as a thunderous stampede of footsteps.

"Sounds like Chimeco's cooking is real popular!" I said to Serge. "Well, I was pretty much eating cold scraps the last time, and even that was quite good – nice food will make my stay less harrowing I guess." I said to him as we followed them into the mess hall, were everyone was already sitting down, and a few of them had already started to dig in. I noticed Bidoof was already finished his – what an iron stomach he had. Serge and I sat down quite slowly, and began to dig in ourselves. I must say, the food was like it was from a four star restaurant – Chimeco clearly took passion in cooking, and I was highly grateful for that and decided to not beat about the bush and thank her right on the spot.

"Y'know, Chimeco, this was a lot better than I expected – I was expecting just the basics, but you go above and beyond that, thanks a lot!" I said to Chimeco, who giggled slightly and smiled.

"Oh, your welcome – I think one of the best exploration guilds in the world deserve some of the best food in the world, which I try to provide." Chimeco said to me. I continued eating the gorgeous roast beef and Yorkshire puddings (or as 'Yorkshire' as you could get in a completely different world) – a meal that I already loved, but this happened to be some of the best roast beef I had ever tasted. The roast potatoes were also cooked to perfection, and the vegetables were juicy, and were by no means at all an add-on to eat. Well, that's one good thing about joining the guild – the food was excellent. My meal was somewhat disturbed by nasty looks that Loudred was giving me. I shot him a look back before Serge nudged me.

"Never mind him – he'll eventually warm up to you if things go well". Serge whispered to me. Even so, I could still tell that Loudred was looking for an excuse to appeal to get me out of the guild, at whatever cost. There was something about him that was infuriating, and while I didn't want to give him a nasty cut with leaf blade, I secretly would like it if he was injured in some way.

"Well, this place is riddled with bad points everywhere – racism, lack of comfy beds, the fact that every day until I find my way home could be my last, Chatot, and being in the body of a pokemon. On the other hand, the food is brilliant, and those who aren't racist or those not called Chatot are actually very friendly!" I said to Serge quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear "I'm not going to be able to get used to this I'm afraid, but what choice to I have? I might as well drown my sorrows in the rest of this well cooked beef." I said, and ate the remainder of what was on my plate. I finished, so I just decided to gossip with some of the other guild members.

"Hey hey Floyd, enjoying life in the guild?" Corphish asked me as I left the dining hall, waving at me once again/

"It's OK I guess." I said, not wanting to say I didn't like it, without telling an outright lie – I didn't want to dishonour the lord Dialga since lying was highly discouraged.

"Ah, you'll warm up to it soon enough – though you didn't exactly seem enthusiastic going in, how so?"

"Well truth be told, it was mainly down to Serge here." I told him. "He convinced me to join, it was his idea, but an idea I trusted nonetheless."

"Trust me Floyd, he made a good choice! My first few days were a bit awkward, and even unpleasant, but stick in it, and you'll grow to love it – seeing the face of the rescued pokemon is always a treat." Corphish said proudly to me "It's Sunday tomorrow, the day off for the guild, aside from pokemon getting selected to go on emergency rescues – no recovering lost items or crap like that – must be a bit of a downer having something quite insignificant like that for your first assignment, eh?"

"Not really actually, just something plain and simple was more than enough for my first assignment" I said. "I actually kind of suck at fighting, you see."

"Ah, you foreigners are soft!" He said, and chuckled " Ah, don't be so touchy, haha! What was life back where you come from?" This was a question I hoped wouldn't prop up – would I make complete shit up, or tells him the truth, and have him most likely believe I was loopy – I got on well with him. I felt bad having to disrespect both Dialga and a nice guy like this, but I just couldn't risk ostracization!

"Truth be told, there was mass unemployment, so I came here to look for work. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm kind of a leech here, but it was either that or certain homelessness." I said to him, improvising my story, and it seemed to have worked!

"Not at all Floyd – I'm happy to have you here – I bet you got some useful skills that no one else in the guild has – I bet you could be a great asset soon! And besides, it seems like you are at least competent, and for your first ever rescue as well" He said and yawned ."I'm off to bed – it's our day off tomorrow, how about me and you go and have a good time in the Spinda coffee shop tomorrow? Bring Serge as well – he's also a good fella, unless of course one of us gets called on an emergency assignment."

"Aye, I will do that" I said – I liked his offer, and it could be a chance to get used to talk more to my fellow guild members, and to explore the town – I've only seen the outskirts of it from the guild entrance before, and seeing a brand new culture was actually quite an exciting prospect. Perhaps I could stumble across a psychic pokemon who might be able to use his powers to learn how I got here, and how to get back. I yawned as I felt tiredness hit me earlier than usual – most likely due to the hard physical work I did today in The Drenched Bluff.

However, as I walked into my quarters with Serge, and we rested on our beds, I couldn't help yearn for life back at home – the beautiful music, the comforted and safe way of life, and my old friends. I also thought about how they would feel – surely they'd be very upset, thinking I've completely disappeared, but did they know or not? And the memory of holding onto someone's hand before feeling like I was sucked down a black hole, with my body rife with pain. Was that just my mind playing tricks on me, or was it a genuine memory, because it seemed so very much more recent than drinking with the band after the gig. I didn't see how it fitted into my life, but there was something about it that made it seem very real. I put the thought aside, thinking it just came from the stress of being a snivy. I gently closed my eyes and fell asleep – at least tomorrow won't be a life-threatening day, but knowing my luck, there'll be a turn of events that would make it into an even more dangerous day than today.


	3. Some More Questions

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 3: Even more questions

"GET UP!" The Loudred yelled "IT'S MORNING!" He yelled – he seemed to be the guild's alarm clock for some reason, always running into our rooms and yelling at us to get up. But it was Sunday! There was no work today! I groaned, and slowly opened my eyes, wanting to hit that bastard across his massive face with something heavy.

"Loudred, you bastard, it's Sunday, there's no work…" I said sleepily, but he had already left. A cool breeze went through the guild window, blowing sea salt on us, which seemed to wake me up more, and evidently Serge as well.

"Morning Floyd." He said simply, and got to his feet a lot quicker than I did, sluggishly hauling myself to stand up, stays up, and not to fall asleep again – it felt like a mammoth effort to do so. It was another sunny day outside – as a human, I'd probably grumble at the heat, since I definitely preferred cool weather to hot weather, but as a snivy, I seemed to have an odd affinity towards the sun – perhaps I did partially photosynthesise as well, and the pokemon instincts were instructing my brain to like it. It seemed like a plausible theory, but I really didn't think much of these pokemon instincts. I slowly followed Serge into the main area, when we were suddenly called upon by Chatot - wonder what the beaked bastard wants this time?

"Ah, you two – now don't you worry, there's no work for you today, but I have instructed Bidoof to show you two around town – there are a lot of facilities that benefit exploration teams that I feel as though you two should know about – have you even visited treasure town Floyd?"

"Nope - haven't got round to it yet." I said to him.

"Hrm, you really must have arrived here recently – either way, Bidoof is waiting for you at the guild entrance. After the tour, the rest of the day is yours. Of course, doing a low ranking job on the notice boards outside will yield pay as well – volunteering to do extra goes for miles around here!" Chatot said, quite clearly wanting us to work today, but knows that he can't make us – at least he was being professional with the whole affair, which seemed to limit how much of an ass he could be. We then made our way up the ladder and saw a rather excited looking Bidoof, smiling broadly.

"I believe Chatot told you two I was going to give you a tour around Treasure Town, yup yup?"

"'Yup yup' indeed buddy!" I said back to him "Shall we go on now?"

"Of course! By Golly, at least with this errand, it feels like I'm directly helping people become better explorers" Bidoof said, looking quite proud of himself. He led us into treasure town – and my initial thoughts were proven – pokemon seemed obsessed to build buildings in their literal image. I saw a building that looked like a duskull, and a further one away in the shape of an electivire. I thought it was silly and impractical, but on the other hand, it was probably just their culture and way of life. It was quite fascinating to see all the pokemon to be people, rather than mere animals which was what I was used to back in my world.

"This is The Duskull Bank, you might want to open an account now, It should only take you a few minutes, I'll wait" Bidoof said politely. Me and Serge approached the counter, and Duskull turned around almost immediately to greet us.

"Hello you two, I think I may have seen you before, cyndaquil, my name slips your mind, and I can't say I've seen you before, snivy, you just moved here, hehe?" The Duskull said – he was just a little bit creepy, and somewhat reminded me of Croagunk back in the guild.

"Yup yup, the two of them just formed Team Conviction a couple of days ago." Bidoof said.

"Ah, are any of you two in charge, or are you two even in power?" Duskull asked me. It was something we never thought about – there didn't seem to be a leading man among us, so I just waited for what Serge had to say, not wanting to step on his toes.

"We're even." Serge said to Duskull.

"Ah, I can open a joint account for you then – rescue teams get double the rate of interest, to show my support for them – the town itself practically functions as an exploration base!" Duskull said to us proudly, but I did remember seeing one thing in the guild.

"…So in return, the guild allowed you to advertise the bank inside the building?" I said to him, smiling a bit.

"Well…yes, are you two having a joint account or not?" Duskull asked, getting slightly impatient.

"Shit, this is like fucking marriage!" I said to myself and chuckled. "At least, money wise – work together, share our earnings. This is gonna cause problems, I can tell"

"Relax Floyd, it'll be fine, and we do get double interest rates." Serge said. Admittedly, I wasn't too comfortable with sharing money with someone I knew from a completely different world for only about two days, but I generally trust Serge's judgement with this sort of thing – after all, he has lived in this area his whole life.

"Alright, go ahead Duskull." I said to him, as we signed the agreements. I was being particularly careful when reading the fine print – Duskull was a bit unsettling somehow, even though I'm sure he didn't mean to be. One thing that I also thought of, of which I never thought of before – how did these pokemon speak good English? Considering this is probably a different world, and humans aren't here, then how am I communicating with them as if I was speaking to any fellow English speaking human? Or was I even speaking English? Was all this all pokemon instincts?

"Hey Floyd, we're done here." Bidoof said – apparently, I had been standing still, staring blankly as I contemplated about such things.

"Woah, sorry." I said to Bidoof, as we walked deeper into Treasure town "I was just…thinking about the whole scenario…" I said, suddenly feeling a lot glummer, thinking about life back home again – I wondered how my friends and family would be feeling – would they be really scared for my disappearance?

"Floyd, you're staring into space again!" Serge said, sounding a bit frustrated.

"That's The Marowak Dojo to your left, though it's closed since he broke his leg. There's also a museum up that path, but that's also closed – you came during a holiday period, and only some services are open unfortunately – a real inconvenience to us explorers." Bidoof said "The holiday ends on Tuesday though, so you should be fine." We were lead into the other side of town, where there were more buildings. Of course, they were also shaped after the pokemon who owned them; how novel.

"Well, at least there's more open facilities here – Lemme guess, that place is run by a kecleon, right?"

"Two kecleon brothers to be more precise." He said, gesturing to their shop, as we approached it

"WELCOME TO OUR SHOP!" The brothers said loudly to us in unison, surprising me, but I somehow chuckled, obviously trying to entice me into buying their produce.

"Those two are so gay for each other…" I said quietly under my breath to Serge, and sniggered a bit. I knew they probably weren't, but I could tell that they were rather bromantic with each other. Serge gave a baffled look to me, and cleared his throat.

"Hello you two" Serge said, who had obviously been here before quite a few times. "Bidoof was showing us, well, technically just Floyd here around – I go here often."

"A snivy?" The green one said, and they suddenly began talking to each other, quietly, but very quickly – I couldn't make out the exact words, but I think they might have been considering offering me a discount to try and get me, and other immigrants, on their side. I'd be sure to take a good bargain any day!

"Yes, we have a special section that assists exploration teams such as the pair of you." The purple one said. He was about to display his wares to us, when I saw an azurill and a marill approach from the right, evidently intending to buy stuff, and this obviously swiped the attention of the enthusiastic shop-owners.

"Hello!" The marill said, with the azurill right behind her. "Bad news, momma Azumarill is sick, so we have to buy our food for our family this time." She said to them – she seemed like she just reached adolescence – I was quite impressed to see her take responsibility at this age. "Oh sorry, were you buying something you two?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure – you go ahead anyway." I said to them – I didn't particularly care for them, but I though that common courtesy was not to go amiss.

"Thank you mister!" The azurill said, clearly only a child – must have been only about seven years old, or thereabouts "Three apples please!"

"That will be 50 poke." The green one said, handing over the apples, and taking the money off the marill "Enjoy, do come again!" The pair of them looked like they were about to walk off, when they suddenly turned to look at us.

"You seem like an exploration duo, are you?" The marill asked us. I was quite confused why they wanted to know, but I told them anyway.

"We're Team Conviction - why'd you ask?" I responded.

"Well, Azurill hasn't been himself since he lost his water float – it was actually very important to him" She said to us. "Problem is, that we have no idea where we lost it – we were wondering if you, or anyone you might know, knows where it is."

"Not me anyway – how about you Serge?" I asked.

"Nope, sorry" Serge said, and the marill sighed.

"Ah, that's too bad – lets go home Azurill" She said to her younger brother, but the apple the azurill was carrying was accidentally dropped without him noticing. Seeing this, walked over and picked it up.

"Hey, Azurill, you…" I said, until everything started seeming heavy, and my vision swayed a bit "Ugh…" I said, staggering a wee bit. "What the fuck…"

"Floyd – you OK?" I heard Serge say, but it seems like he was saying it from a mile away, as if the whole world was being pulled away from me at all sides. My vision turned to black, and a bright light seemed to appear in front of me – was I dying? Was I getting a heart attack? Before I had time to contemplate such things, all I heard was a scream – it sounded like it was calling for help. Come to think of it – it sounded familiar – but where on earth was the voice coming from anyway? Was I dying? Was this what death was like? A thousand questions ran through my head, but before I could fully think of one, the world seemed to come back to me, my heavy head seemed to lighten again, and I could see objects blurring back into view.

"Floyd? You've zoned out again! Except you've REALLY zoned out this time!" Serge said, sounding a bit frustrated "Are you sure you're OK?" He asked. I paused for a second as the world came right back into view.

"What just happened?! What the fuck?! Everything went dark, and I heard this scream!" I said in panic. "Just…what…" I said, looking around in a panic, eventually looked at Azurill. "Oh…your apple…you dropped it…"

"Thank you mister" he said to me as I handed it over. I froze right there, thinking about the scream – it was the same voice – did Azurill scream?

"Er…did you scream earlier?" I asked him, and I only got a bewildered look back. "Did anyone here him scream? Did anyone here a scream at all?" I asked – only confused and baffled looks were returned to me – was it all in my head. Was insanity digging my way into my mind due to staying in this world for too long?

"I already know the rest of the village Bidoof." Serge said, snapping me out of my thoughts "I've already set up a storage account with Kangaskhan a year ago, I'll just tell Floyd about out it when we go there next" He said to Bidoof. "You've been patient with us – we'll meet you in the Spinda coffee shop if you'd like later on – Floyd was heading down to meet Corphish there anyway – you should join us."

"By golly, I will, yup yup!" Bidoof said. "See you soon!" He said as he walked off. Serge turned to look at me afterwards, scratching his head.

"Ok…you heard a scream that no one else heard…" He said "Now, I won't say your going crazy, but…"

"Well, it wouldn't surprise me if I was!" I said bitterly "I mean, I don't belong here, I belong in the human world! This…body doesn't belong to me!" I yelled, and sat down on a rock, looking up in the sky, as if to say 'what did I do to deserve this?'

"Look, Floyd…" Serge said "I know this obviously very tough for you, but, I mean, you can't just be mopey about it!" He said "I don't know if you are going crazy or not, but you can't…look, I'm sure you'll forget about it in the Spinda coffee shop – how about we just head back to the guild, dump our stuff in our room and go there, Ok?" He said to me – while the scream inside my head was still bothering me, it seemed like the best current idea. I followed him towards the coffee shop, but we did see Marill and Azurill again. We overheard them talking to a drowzee, who seemed to know where the water float was.

"It's there?!" Marill said "Hrm, we had a wander there a couple of weeks ago – didn't go too far, because it's dangerous. Ooh, I'm not sure if we should go there..."

"I'll help." The drowzee said, sounding a lot older than them, and even me. "I'm capable at defending myself against the savages up on the mountain – Shall we go together?"

"Yes please"! The Azurill squeaked politely. "Oh, thank you so much mister!"

"By the way, just in case things go pear shaped, why don't you get some oran berries for the journey? They've got some on sale at The Kecleon Shop for only 20 Poke." The Drowzee said to Marill "Let's go Azurill – we'll let marill catch up."

"Hey there, good to see you helping them" Serge said politely "Good luck on finding it!"

"It shouldn't be a problem sir." The Drowzee said "I mean, I was real upset when I lost my favourite toy at that age for many, many months – I don't want to see it happen to anyone else if I can help it. Besides, these 'water floats' run in azumaill families, so I'm sure it's more important than just an average toy." He said as he led the Azurill away, but just as he did so, he scraped past me.

"Whoops, sorry sir." He said and continued to walk away, but, I started to feel dizzy again, and felt that familiar ring inside my head. The world seemed to be pulled away from me once again as my vision fell to black – it was happening again. By body swayed a bit as a bright light flashed in front of me. Except this time, I could see – what I did see was bizarre – I seemed to be hovering just above a mountain clearing. I gasped when I saw Drowzee and Azurill. The drowzee seemed to have cornered him – there was no mistaking it – it was THE Drowzee and Azurill I just saw a minute ago. I then heard the Drowzee speak in a slightly nasty tone – this wasn't good.

"Look, you're just making it harder for both yourself and me – now, if you don't want to get hurt, to exactly what I say….Because let's face it – no one's coming to help you all the way up on Mount Bristle." I was perplexed – I could evidently see that Drowzee was threatening the Azurill, but why was I seeing this? Was this some kind of vision I was getting? Or was my insanity intensifying?

"Floyd!" I heard Serge yell, as I snapped back into reality. "Look, I am getting really concerned here – you went into a strange trance again! Maybe you should visit Nurse Blissey, could be a medical condition you received or something."

"I saw…Drowzee cornering Azurill, and threatened the poor child with violence if he didn't do as he was told…they were on Mount Bristle" I said truthfully to him, trying my best to recall the details. "I don't know what's happening to me" I said, shedding a tear to myself – was my last days of sanity coming to an end right now. Serge sighed and dragged me back to the guild building.

"Hey hey, Floyd, Serge! We were heading over to the Spinda coffee shop now – dump your stuff off and join us!" Corphish told us as he and Bidoof walked past us. However, my interest was diverted by the message board on the right. It seemed to be filled with wanted posters, with details on where they were last sighted, the crimes they done, and the bounty for capture.

"These guys look like bastards - hope someone brings justice to these dangerous clowns." I said to Serge, when I got a very sudden surprise – the board suddenly flipped over.

"What…was that…" I asked Serge, but before he could think about it, it was swapped back again. "Hmm…the picture of the zangoose was gone…"

"Oh yes he has!" A girl's voice said from behind me, turning out to be Sunflora "He was a dangerous criminal…that is, until I caught him this morning!" Sunflora told us, looking proud. "I've been doing more criminal catching lately, under the recommendations of Wigglytuff himself – I'm getting good at this!"

"Great job, very well done – another bastard behind bars!" I said, congratulating her "Good to see justice being brought to these wrongdoers – remember, a criminal who gets away with it will only see fit to cause more misery!"

"Err, is that...it's is! Fucking Drowzee – the SAME one we saw in town fifteen minutes ago! Apparently committed of theft in Harvest Town three months ago and it was only suspected of the crime this very day!" I was absolutely astounded – not particularly because of the hideous crimes, but because of what I saw, particularly during my second hallucination – I saw the pair of them on Mount Bristle. But HOW?! This was becoming too much too be a mere coincidence – did I get the ability of remote viewing when I became a pokemon?! Clearly the others don't have it, otherwise such posters and explorations wouldn't be necessary.

"Serge! I saw that happen in my hallucination when Drowzee bumped past me! Perhaps it wasn't a hallucination; perhaps it was an actual vision of the future, as unlikely as that sounded! Right, I doubt the fucker was being helpful to Azurill!"

"Come on, this Azurill can't save himself! We're going!" Serge said. I didn't need telling twice, and we immediately left the guild building, and raced towards the mountain, even though it looked a bit too small to be one. It's foreboding, rocky shape told me that the mountain itself could be as nasty as the Drowzee, as it seemed to have little life on it at all.

"Truth be told, I'm not sure if I will be able to bring him to justice – he probably knows a thing or two about fighting after all – but I damn well want to!" I said, as the climb initiated. Now this was something I could get behind more, but as our ascent started, Serge and I clearly had slightly different agendas – he was more interested in saving Azurill, while I wanted Drowzee behind bars over saving the little kid to stop the bastard from doing the same to any other poor child. Further up our climb, we noticed that this place was very devoid of plant life – just the occasional bristly shrub here and there – other than that, it was rocky, so very, very rocky.

"'Barren' doesn't even begin to describe it..." I said, kicking a rock, and I watched roll down the mountainside. It was indeed a boring, grey looking place – the mountains in the Scottish Highlands were definitely more exciting and far less dull, thinking back to my trip to Ben Nevis up the snowcapped peak of the highest point in all of Britain. There was no path this time though, so we had to use our hands at points to ascend the gravelly outcroppings, but at the same time, I couldn't help but be distracted by the view and I did wonder to myself – I could be indeed climbing where no man has gone before. Sure, pokemon might have climbed it, and while I wasn't physically human at this point, I knew I was still human 'at heart', as much as I hated that phrase – so yes, I would indeed be the first human on this mountain!

"We are trying to rescue Azurill, not taking a leisurely walk in the mountains." Serge told me as he led me further up, seeing that I got slightly distracted as I berated myself for letting my concentration slip from the task at hand.

"You sure you're ok Serge? I mean, you still looked pretty mangled from yesterday." I said, looking at his large cut and damaged fur.

"I guess – it's still really sore though, but we don't have time to take it easy, come on." We did see a few pokemon scuffle about, but they seemed rather timid somehow. That is, until we bumped into two very territorial staravia, who did not seem happy to see us at all.

"Er…Serge – these pair don't seem as timid…and they don't seem to like us at all!" I said – they seemed to growl with us, and it seemed like we entered its hunting territory. "Let's just go around them…" I said, but I as I started to walk away, they immediately flew towards us, with a blood-chilling screech.

"I think they're also spoiling for a fight! Get ready!" I didn't need to be told, and I gazed up at them – unlike Serge who was blowing searing jets of flames at them, I really didn't know how to attack and as a result, I just stood around like a useless lemon. It was really too bad that the stare-off I had with one of them, since the other one ignored Serge for a moment and flew hard right into my side, stabbing me with it's sharp beak.

"AARGH!" I yelled, holding my beak-wound tightly, holding the blood in, as I used he sharp head leaf to cut the staravia and chase it away. I taunted it by screaming insults nonsensically at the flying assailant, not even thinking it would understand, but it seemed to have got the message as it flew at me head on – what an idiot. I waited and dived out of the way at the last second as it crashed into a large rock behind me, as I took care of it by slicing it with my tail leaf, leaving a gash on it's wing to ensure it wouldn't fly after us any time soon.

"Took you a while!" Serge said, standing on top of the other staravia, looking proud of himself, as it was gasping in pain from it's burns.

"Yes, well done, bla bla bla, could you get me a bandage or something! I'm hurt here!" I said, trying to usher his gleaming pride away so that he'd help me out here. Even after he wrapped and tied cloth around the wound, it still hurt like a bitch.

"Thank Serge – I just hope it won't hold me back when trying to get Drowzee, because I don't think he's going to take us trying to capture him lying down. I really hope I can discover other fighting methods, because if I remember correctly, drowsees have some really funky abilities. Not that we'd be brain-dead enough to allow ourselves to by hypnotized, but...well, you get the basic idea."

We ascended further higher up the mountain, the breeze beginning to feel a wee bit chilly due to the altitude and exposure – there were no trees to shelter us from the wind. We were near the top now, however, we couldn't be exactly sure he was at the top or not – perhaps he was on the other side. The vision I had showed me he was on the top, but how could I be sure I could trust it? I mean, it seemed to bee too much to me a coincidence, but I somehow remained sceptical about the whole thing. Eventually, when we were almost at the top, we heard voices. And one of them I instantly recognized!

"Look, you're just making it harder for both yourself and me – now, if you don't want to get hurt, to EXACTLY what I say, because let's face it – no one's coming to help you all the way up on Mount Bristle." That was Drowzee alright, but I was utterly astounded – those were the EXACT same words I had in my vision! Did I just…get a vision of the future back there, and it's happening now?!

"Hey, Serge, there's something I ne…." But Serge was already running up to encounter Drowzee. I heard that Azurill scream as I followed him to the top, where Drowzee was cornering Azurill menacingly. By all means Serge, just run in there without a plan!

"The jig's up Drowzee! I'd suggest you let the kid go, or else, as people often say, we'll do this the hard way! Don't worry Azurill, we'll get you home!" Serge said, and Drowzee looked very surprised to see us, but as much as I didn't like Serge announcing his presence, he was at the very least passionate about this mission, as was I.

"H…how did you find me so fast?!" He said, his eyes widened. "I just got here!"

"Let's just say I have connections in high places – now let Azurill go, please, or we will absolutely destroy you, you despicable, child-abducting fuck! I'm looking forward to see you disappear behind bars for a good few years!" I said, the fiery passion for the first real chance of ensuring that justice is served without any worry of the powers that be punishing me unfairly for it!

"Now, look you two – in the past, I have eluded a total of SIX rescue teams, all of them of a fairly high rank – I heard you only started a couple of days ago. Now, let's be reasonable – what chance do you have of brining me in?" He said, clearly cocky – but a lone Drowzee? Elude six high ranking rescue teams? Bullshit.

"Nice bluff, but we're not falling for it – if it means beating the shit out of you until your bowels are completely empty, we will do so, because let's face it – you deserve the shit kicked out of your bowels, and deep down, I bet you know that too!" I said, forgetting any professional law enforcement protocols that this land may have, such as stating rights and all that jazz, not that I felt it was necessary. I was hoping my forceful and boisterous speech would inspire Serge for a good ass-kicking, and it seemed to be working.

"Absolutely!" Serge said, standing his ground, and looked ready to battle. Drowzee sighed in frustration, shaking his head slightly.

"I guess it'll be the hard way then!" Drowzee said, and we stared down for almost a minute, none of us making any advances or retreats.

"Ok, flank him to the side, and incinerate the cunt, and I'll do the attacking to draw his immediate attention." I muttered to Serge, quiet enough so Drowzee wouldn't hear. The stand-off had to end somewhere, as Drowzee still has Azurill trapped, and he would notice Serge's flanking soon. But how to attack from a range? Could I do that? Again, I had to delve into my instincts as Drowzee still decided to merely stand his ground, and after noticing something else about my two leaves I didn't notice before, I had a great idea.

I knew I was against a psychic opponent, and I was pretty certain he would have many tricks up his sleeve, but it was worth a shot. I spun violently around once, swinging my tail with full force right in his direction, and what I hoped would have happened, happened – what seemed to be several sharp leaves seemed to eject from my tail like small shurikens. I smiled, seeing that I was on target, but I knew it wouldn't be that simple, as I saw my efforts being utterly wasted with Drowzee just blocking it with some kind of strange psychic power.

"Great…" I said, and I saw him put his palm out towards me, and I frowned a little, and I readied myself for some kind of psychokinetic attack, and I readied myself to dodge it. But the attack never came – what did come, however, was an agonizing, searing headache, which felt like one thousand needles being thrust right inside my brain which all occurred extremely suddenly.

"AAARRGGHH!" I yelled in intense pain as I dropped to my knees, clutching my head tightly – it was by far the worst headache I had ever received. It was so painful, it nigh on blinded me in sheer pain, and my vision became very blurry. My thoughts were rather scrambled up as well – the pain of the headache causing my thinking to go off as well – however, in spite of all of this, I could see that my flanking strategy worked – through a blurred veil from the inside of my eyes, I could see Serge catch Drowzee off guard with an intense stream of fire, followed by a forceful tackle, which knocked him hard against the wall. I heard him yell in pain, as he struggled to get to his feet.

"Don't worry Floyd, I think I've gotten this down!" Serge said, seeing I was currently in no state to carry on battling until I got over the mind assault. I continued to yell in pain, and even though I felt the pain slowly start to subside, it was pinning me in agony. I saw Serge skilfully dodge a strange beam of psychic energy and rush in to try and slam right into his gut – it seems like Serge outclassed Drowzee in combat, much like he outclassed me. However, I was very wrong to count Drowzee out. I saw Serge charge into another tackle, trying to wind him, but he was ready this time, and completely blocked the attack with what seemed like a wall of light.

Serge seemed dazed as if he just hit his head against a brick wall, and Drowzee punched Serge in the face to knock him back and daze him, almost causing Serge to fall over. The pain was starting to go a little bit, and the environment was now being quite still, rather than the waviness when my mind got assaulted by confusion. I slowly got to my feet, and swayed a bit, and kept my eyes on Drowzee.

"I told you – you should have left while you had the chance!" The Drowzee said and blasted Serge with a focused beam of energy, sending Serge reeling across the ground, and not only did he looked dazed and disorientated, the harsh ground left quite a few grazes on Serge. The Drowzee exhaled, seeming tired after using all that power, and turned away from us and to the Azurill.

"Now…where were we, ah yes, you WILL squeeze through that hole and retrieve that sack of jewels now!" Drowzee ordered to the frightened Azurill, who was currently backing against a very large rock. "I don't care if they belong to some staraptor or not, get them for me now!" I knew I wasn't out yet – everything seemed clear now, and while my head was still throbbing, I could see that Drowzee was still pretty badly injured, having been burnt and bashed by Serge.

I slowly started walking up to them both from behind; each step feeling like someone opened up my head and gave my brain a good punch, not to mention that the wound I received from that staravia was still potent and painful, and I could still feel myself bleeding slightly. I made very little sound as I got quite close to them – trying to attack at range was too risky – I could hit Azurill by mistake, and I'd never want to bring pain to a child, even by accident. I clenched my hands together as a particularly large headache pain spike surged right through my brain; however, this turned out to be a good thing – me hands felt like they got pins and needles, and I looked down at them – for some reason they were glowing green. Instinct seemed to take over once before as I lunged right at Drowzee from behind.

"I havn't got all day! Do it now, or else I will guarantee you, you will suffer more pain th…WHAT?!" Drowzee yelled as I jumped on his back grabbing his forehead with one of my glowing hands, and firmly holding both hands behind with my other. He was bigger than me, so I expected him through his wild struggling to break free with ease. He was just about to, but he seemed to tire out oddly quickly; but, actually, was it me that was getting stronger? I was starting to feel a lot healthier as I held him still with my hands, glowing green, but not too brightly.

"Get off! Gah…get…off…" Drowzee said – oddly enough, he seemed to be weakening, and was somehow getting very exhausted, and within very little time, it wasn't even hard to keep him still. I could sense him trying to use psychic abilities to get me to let go, but he was not doing a good job of it at all. I saw Serge slowly get to his feet, covered in nasty grazes, and has a couple of deep cuts on his side, which were bleeding slowly – he seemed to be quite angry, and his back erupted with flames, more intensely than I have seen before. It was so intense, that the flames even seemed to encircle him completely. Without warning, he suddenly rushed forward, almost completely covered in fire.

"Get away!" He yelled to me – I got the hint, and pushed the exhausted Drowzee towards the charging fireball and dived out of the way as Serge slammed into Drowzee with great fiery force. He was scorched and slammed, and was knocked back a great distance – there was no chance he'd be getting up from that attack any time soon! Azurill came running towards us, crying in fear, and I was sure he was trying to give Serge a hug for his own comfort – difficult without arms!

"We did it Serge! Now, let's just arrest this cunt and bring him back to the village!" I yelled triumphantly, not paying much attention around saying arguably the most offensive word ever around a minor. I said, and started bringing Drowzee down the mountain, who was in no position to resist. Serge seemed very impressed with himself, not to mention surprised, and kept comforting Azurill.

"This will only take an hour – you're safe with us, we promise!" Serge stroked his head as he walked down between Serge and I, with me in the front pretty much pushing Drowzee down the mountain, giving little regard to his safety – it sure was good stress relief to distract me from my pokemon predicament!

"I had no idea I could do that! Perhaps being with you, Floyd, is helping me achieve my true potential, as well as yours!" Serge said, evidently planning ahead for even greater endeavours with his excited grin telling me everything I needed to know.

"That's funny..." I said, looking at myself. I didn't feel too injured, in fact, I didn't seem to be sore at all! Even the stab wound from earlier was mostly gone, peeking underneath the bandage, which was now coloured faintly red with my blood. "How come I'm not...well...mangled?" Serge took a look at me curiously, seeing the wound was barely there.

"I think it's something some pokemon can do – I think you might have absorbed some of his energy and life-force to exhaust him and transfer that energy to yourself." I swore one of my friends back home called Rob mentioned this, and I decided to recall what he said as best as he could – in Canada, he was ranked among the top 250 trainers, and really knew his stuff. Too bad I never liked the idea of pokemon training, and stayed clear of that questionable garbage – not the sort of thing to mention to Serge either – I wouldn't blame him if he compared it to slavery!

"You see, Serge, pokemon also exist in my world, but they havn't become civilized yet, and people document their fighting abilities and stuff. I'm sure that among trainers that the absorbing ability was called...well...absorb. Funny that, hehe. Regardless, I only know bits and pieces as I was actually rather scared of the pokemon. Tried to spend as little time with them as possible – hey, I'm just being honest with you – sigh of respect and stuff!" I said, hoping I didn't needlessly offend him.

"Will you be OK, buddy?" I said to Serge, inspecting his wounds – there were many new cuts, bruises and grazes, but none of them looked like they needed any treatment. I really couldn't help but feel concerned for him – sure he never mattered much to me, but he couldn't make rapid recoveries like I could.

"I'll be fine – I'll be fighting fit by tomorrow." Serge insisted, and we soon arrived back in Treasure Town. Azurill ran immediately to Marill as soon as he saw her, crying and blubbering nonsensically. Your welcome, Azurill...

"Oh, thank you thank you THANK you!" Marill said, also looking shaken up by the whole thing. "You saved him, and so quick! If you were any slower then he might...no, it didn't happen, we needn't worry about it. I really don't know how to thank you! I promise, we'll see you again and make it up to you one way or another." Azurill let out a choked thank you before running off with Marill before we even had the chance to say anything back to them. Aw well, time to deal with the issue at hand – Drowzee.

"Your tracking skills must be incredible!" Officer Magnezone said as we brought the badly beaten up Drowzee into his office, as he looked up from his paperwork, which he seemed to be doing by controlling the electricity around him to move objects or something like that, it seemed pretty crazy. "Less than four hours it took you after we confirmed that he was the culprit of several previous crimes – most impressive, but might I add that you may have been too brutal with this criminal by the looks of things."

"Sorry, I was angry at him and his crimes, and considering he said that he had a track record of escaping, I wanted to make sure I could drag him to town without incident." I responded.

"Well, it was according to records your first time, so I guess it's ok, just remember next time, sirs, to use a little restraint." The officer said, pushing Drowzee into a primitive looking holding cell, where he looked more sad than angry that he now found himself behind bars. Good, let that misery teach the bastard a lesson. "Here is the payment for the successful capture of Drowzee, but I expect a lot of that will go to the guild." He said, handing us over the money – payment was obviously good, but crime fighting was under heavy tax from the guild as well?! Total cunts.

"And we only get to keep thirty five percent of this as well?! Us explorers risking our lives for a pittance..."

"I don't make the rules, but keep it between us – your guildmaster should really be paying you a lot more – he is by far the wealthiest in this town, twice as rich as Smeargle, the artist and museum owner. It's very helpful for you to catch criminals like this – it's gone out of fashion in the guild where teaching about it is fairly minimal. A crime wave is brewing as a result, and I don't like it." Magnezone told us, who seemed very trusting of me, which was a nice change from some of the other citizens.

"I think it's a great idea..." I said before trailing of – doing your part to ensure justice was the Dialgan way – no crime goes unpunished. But this wasn't leading me any closer to home, which came on my mind again after the tension had calmed after leaving to head back to the guild for dinner. Bitterness filled me again before I went on yet another rant.

"Too bad Chatot is going to be like…" I said and cleared my throat, and said, with a rather accurate impression of Chatot "We here at the Wigglytuff guild openly rip off trainees by taking sixty-five percent of what they earn – here you can keep one thousand, and five hundred will go towards keeping you, and the rest will go to Wigglytuff and I to get totally smashed on acid!" I said, imitating Chatot, which made Serge chuckle, then being presented of what 'acid' was and why they would want to crash into corrosive liquids.

"Well, I guess A thousand Poke is still quite a bit, and it's not like we have to spend any of it on food or anything." Serge said as we walked up the stairs to the guild. "By the way…I can listen better now – tell me about this supposed 'future vision' that you tried to explain to me just as we saw Drowzee." I explained the vision to him in detail, emphasising the exact same scream pitch and the exact same words uttered by Drowzee, yet Serge didn't quite seem convinced.

"…And you're being entirely truthful?! Was you're father a xatu or something – they can get visions of the future, or so they claim – it has been proven wrong before." He said to me, and I sighed again, and this was ignoring the biological impossibilities of what he said.

"Serge, I'm telling you – I am…well, was a human – both my parents were human! I understand why you find it hard to believe, but it's the truth!" Although, humans don't get visions or divinations like that either…." I said, thinking for a while before trailing off to a mere mutter, only audible to myself. "Why the fuck did I just get a vision of the future…?" This was becoming more baffling by the second – I got turned into a pokemon, and went into some world where pokemon were civilized, and now I had a vision of the future?! What added up about this? Nothing I could conceivably get a leash on! This was beyond a wild goose chase now!

"Well, there is something about you that is certainly different…ugh, ok, I admit it – I honestly believe that you were a human! You're rabidly insisting it, and from what you've described, it seems too consistent to be a fantasy that you made up yourself, or insanity for that matter." Serge said. "Still…humans are heard of here, just never seen. In these parts, they are creatures of legend." This immediately got my interests.

"Tell me more! I'm very interested to see what this world thinks of the mighty human race!" I said, smiling – perhaps I could dig a few clues from these legends.

"Sorry Floyd, I barely look into it – I'm sure someone in the guild is interested in such legends. I actually overheard that Chatot was quite avid on the legend of the humans – you could probably speak to him about it, I'm sure, in spite of his grumpiness, he'd actually be happy to talk about it." It was something to go on, but I really didn't want to speak to Chatot if I could possibly avoid it, but I guess the worst he'll do is give me vicious words.

We approached the Wigglytuff guild, and we were cheered by a few guild members, which forced a smile on my face – was I getting used to this? No. Was it growing on me? Definitely no – but I now no longer felt unwanted at all – matter of fact, they seemed to think quite highly of me and Serge for the most part. I took this in happily – in bleak situations, I knew it was always important to enjoy the little things, and when really busy, I didn't even think about home much – hard to do in dangerous situations!We climbed down the ladder into the lower quarters of the Wigglytuff guild, where we were immediately greeted by Chatot, clapping his wings.

"I must admit – I honestly didn't think it was even feasible for you two to apprehend Drowzee, considering you've only been a team for a few days, but you somehow done it!" He said to us, looking quite happy for a change. "Well, I think you know what's to happen next" He said – I knew fine well what he meant, but to remain on his good side, I handed over the sack money, not being successful in looking irritated.

"Wonderful! He's your cut." He said and handed our cut back to us, giving me a nasty look, my attitude and outright species seeming to piss him off. "But with an attitude like that really tells me it was all down to your exploration partner, extreme luck, or your greed for money. I somehow bet it's all three."

"That's rich – thirty-five percent is fucking awful! For life endangering work?!" Chatot both seemed pissed at my back-chat, but then let on a slightly cruel smile.

"You, Snivy – you are treading on thin ice. Keep that up, and I'll be sure to convince the guildmaster to kick you out of here!"

"It's 'Floyd'..." I said, walking off, making Chatot seemed more confused than infuriated – perhaps flaunting my name instead of my species name was considered abnormally open here.

"Well, me and you seem to be getting the hang of this oddly quickly." I said, thinking about what happened today. "Well, I'm going to ask Chatot about future visions and the humans when he comes out, I'll see you in the mess hall in half an hour buddy."

"A'right, see you there Floyd." Serge said and walked off. It was the first time I actually got a good look and Serge – his fur seemed a darker shade of green compared to most cyndaquils, and he almost exclusively walked on two legs. I'm sure it was a culture thing, and besides, it's not like humans had the same skin colour – there were some who were just about chalk white, and some as black as the night, so I could hardly be surprised. Chatot suddenly jumped out of Wigglytuff's quarters, and turned to look at me.

"That wasn't a threat I gave you, it was a promise. Keep that in mind." He warned me, but I decided to muster up some courage and risk walking on thinner ice.

"I heard you were interested in the legend of the humans." He suddenly turned round, looking curious more than anything else. Perhaps he could be open for conversation in a good mood, not that I'd be interested in bringing up anything else other than humans with him.

"Y…you're also interested in the legends? I thought I was the only one in the guild. I'm fascinated by them, and before I became the vice leader of the guild, I went exploring with like-minded people. For they say – that the humans were the ones to elevate us from our animalistic roots into glorious civilized ways." Chatot said to us, clearly passionate about it. I however, was amazed – was this the reason why pokemon in this world were civilized?

"They also say that they gave us a universal communications system, which me and you are speaking to right now. Most people dub this as nonsense, but on our expeditions before it dismantled due to our leader dying in a tragic accident, revealed to us a hidden chest filled with documents. When we brought this back, we revealed the ancient writing – it was carefully written – and we found out it dated to before the first known pokemon civilization. Most just shrug this off as an even older civilization, but, there was a picture of a few unknown creatures – I have them, I will show you." He said, and I followed him to his room.

What he said was fascinating – perhaps I wasn't the only human to come to this world. This seemed more like vague archaeology instead of legends to me, and I was already making plans to visit the site of the discovery. Clearly, if the answers to the mystery of my arrival here were anywhere, they would be there.

"Here." He said, and showed me – standing tall and proud, they were humans alright. They seemed to be from the Victorian age, considering the way they dressed, except for one of them who looked like they crawled out of the Amazon. But I could understand why some pokemon didn't see it as valid proof – It wasn't a photo, it was a painting – must have been dubbed as an illusion or a sham by many.

"Unfortunately, most of them are blind to these 'legends.' I believe that these are the humans, as said in one of the documents that one of my friends had, who also died in the cave in – it did describe the pokemon's feelings on leaving the usual animalistic ways, and into the new, civilized ways. I think this all shows that the humans must have come from another world and brought civilization to us. However, some pokemon here have never heard of them, and those that do – vast majority don't believe they even existed. I suppose you think I'm talking a load of crap as well." Chatot said, scowling slightly, but I decided to turn his frown upside down with an encouraging response.

"Oh, no, I believe that humans exist – fully and without any doubt" I said, which seemed to make Chatot happier. "Say, where did you find these documents?"

"The site of the first pokemon civilization, but they were cave dwellers, and that was many years ago – I think it's also caved in, there's no way on earth that I, or anyone else can ever get back there unless they're expert diggers – but I suspect any other traces there would have been destroyed by the cave in. It's really too bad – I would have proposed to Wigglytuff that we should have a guild expedition there." Chatot continued to explain everything he saw at the discovery, holding my interest in a choke-hold – I was very fascinated by all the theories, but there something he said that baffled me.

"One of my fellow explorers, a feraligator, actually doesn't believe that they are pokemon, but something else entirely, but I very much doubt that – as mythical as they seemed, I doubt they were not too different from pokemon on the whole – we are as varied as they come, and they seem to have a lot in common. Well, I'm not too sure of that, it's not like I've seen humans myself, but I wouldn't go classifying them outside of being pokemon." I coughed – did he seriously suggest that humans were also pokemon?! I found it hard not to laugh, but on the other hand, it's not like I could say they weren't for sure – exactly what qualified as being pokemon or not was beyond my understanding. There was also something odd I thought of – indeed, the pokemon of this world must have seen human beings at one point in order to make a painting of them – but they must have saw them in their human forms – I was turned into a snivy. Something must have happened to me as I went over between the worlds that didn't happen to them – I believed in Chatot's theories – it would probably explain why they could speak good English, and I could speak to them as I would speak to my fellow English speaking human.

"Say, Chatot, do you know how they came here, or if they got back to their own world or not?" I asked him.

"No one knows the answer to either question." Chatot said to me. "All that was ever suggested in the documents, is how they helped pokemon reach civilized heights – nothing about their origin, or what happened after they encountered the pokemon of this world." I sighed – I guess I was still no closer to figuring out how to get home after all – I was bumping into false hope and setbacks everywhere, and it was starting to get to me. I was wondering how hard it would become to the 'enjoy the little things' policy that I was forcing myself to keep to in the future, if no discovery could be made.

"I take it nothing about them getting visions of the future were mentioned either, or nothing about humans turning into other species of pokemon" I asked, and saw Chatot shake his head, and give me a puzzling look.

"I don't know why you are asking about getting visions of the future – only xatus can supposedly do it, I believe it's a scam – a lot of xatus I have encountered have made mountains of cash out of their supposed future-telling abilities, and humans becoming other species is outright unheard of or unhinted at." Chatot said "Take my advice Floyd – don't go spending money on their 'divinations.'" This didn't help me either – like those humans over a hundred years ago, I must have went from the human world into the pokemon world – but how did I get turned into a pokemon myself, and how did I get two visions of the future?

"I suspect dinner will be ready any soon – I can't believe I'm saying this to you, but I enjoyed our little chat." Chatot said, and I nodded.

"As I have enjoyed talking to you – hey, if you ever find out anything more, or get any other possible theories, be sure to share them with me – I'd be very happy to know more about the humans" I said to him. As I walked away, I could hear him mutter to himself 'how odd – he seems so fascinated in them – but why? Out of all the pokemon I have met, he seems to be the most strange and eccentric one I've ever come across.' I didn't blame him really – trying to settle in a new culture with a different body was indeed, a mighty challenge. I heard a familiar chiming sound, signifying that Chimeco has finished making dinner, which was delicious as usual. I was greeted by Corphish again outside of the mess hall after I had finished.

"It was too bad you couldn't join us in the Spinda Coffee Shop today, but I'll be spooned, you and Serge – taking down Drowzee on a whim like that? Fantastic stuff man!. Well, I'll just do an easy assignment with Bidoof tomorrow so we can finish quickly – we'll be in the café until dinner time if you want to join us" Corphish said, being very friendly and polite as usual.

"Indeed." I said, not thinking I'd be home by tomorrow – maybe within two weeks I can find may way home.

"I'll come as well." Serge said, and nodded "I was actually looking forward to it as well, but duty called." I nodded at them, and put the leaf behind my head, as it flopped over and obstructed my vision, much like my hair occasionally done when it was windy outside, flying all over the place, and somehow gravitating towards my mouth. Just as Serge was heading to his room, I heard Chatot speak to me yet again, and I begun to wonder if me being a snivy was that much of a thing for him. To think if he saw me as a human – imagine his fixation then!

"Hrm…I really don't know who you are at all really." Chatot said, sounding less friendly and more like his usual self – shame, he seemed almost nice before. "Even compared to the other snivy immigrants that have been sighted – only three others, you seem very different from them, and other pokemon on the whole. My sources tell me that you had a couple of dizzy spells while in Treasure Town where Bidoof was showing you around, and that you had no idea what was causing them – describe them to me." This made me feel uneasy – I wasn't sure if telling Chatot I had a vision of the future was a good idea – I didn't want him thinking I was a loony.

"It…everything just kinda went blank for a moment, and I just completely spaced out." I said – it was only a partial lie – that did actually happen, though I didn't mention the vision. I would have liked to tell him to mind his own business, but as much as I didn't like him, getting on his wrong side wasn't a wise idea.

"Any headaches during the process?"

"Nope." I responded "Just dizziness."

"Never heard of anyone having a dizzy blackout without a headache before." He said, looking right into my eyes. "Anyway, I will keep an eye on Team Conviction – especially you – even for a foreigner; you seem particularly unusual, as if you don't even come from this world. I'm pretty sure you have something to hide, and if you do, I will find out soon. That is all." He said, finally returning to his quarters and staying there.

"Well aren't you the rising star now..." Loudred said, purposefully bumping into me as he walked to his own room. "Ship your earnings home and ruining it for the rest of us – I'm already ahead of you, Snivy."

"And I guess you're not a rising star – it's really to bad man!" I said, sniggering as I didn't take Loudred's grumbling seriously – he could at least be more professional about his discrimination like Chatot.

"Hey Floyd." He said to me as I lied down in my own 'bed. He picked what seemed to be a magazine or newspaper and started reading it, and looking at the cover it was – you guessed it – Exploration Weekly. Well, I guess completely unoriginal names like that can still fly in such a young civilization.

"Apparently, some idiot claims he found an artifact which he dubbed a 'Time Gear.' He refused to take it back with him since it was apparently one of those things that should be left alone – he seemed so crazy after the whole thing that his mental health is severely damaged – gone completely insane." Serge explained to me, looking me with the occasional sideways glance.

"Time gears? What in the world are they?"

"No idea, and everyone, including myself thinks he's full of it – it's not uncommon for people to outright lie about their discoveries to try and maintain glory. There's another one here actually." He said and signalled me over. "A poliwrath claimed something just as bogus – he said that he swam deep into the ocean and found Kyogre himself – as in actually found the mythological creature.

"Hah, my band was named after said creature – The Kyogre Is Dead." My friendly chuckle turned into a frown as soon as Serge gave me a look to say 'what's a band?' Hopeless... "You don't even know what a band is? Music? None of that?"

"Not at all – some human thing?" This just made me miss home even more – I could probably hold in the misery of being away for a while by listening to music from other worlds, but without it – this civilization now seemed a bit dead in a way to me now. No word of Dialga, no music – what's my next discovery about this place going to be?!

"Excuse me for a wee moment, I'm going to pray to my lord for a moment. Don't disturb me, got it?" Again, Serge just looked really confused, which to be honest, I wasn't surprised at. I didn't have my small alter at home, so I decided to make use of the window – it was the best I had. Normally, I'd be on my way to the largest Dialgan temple to hear my dad's service – I bet he'd be concerned that I didn't show up as well. I'm sure it was near enough to midnight, and the new week was about to begin.

"Dialga, oh righteous one – I hope you can forgive me for not being able to attend church, and that this personal prayer to you will be sufficient. I want to thank you for keeping time flowing on, and not abandoning us to a dead eternity. We honour you at this time to celebrate the start of a new week that you have provided for all living things, and we worship you for this. I will continue to uphold and carry out your moral guidance wherever I go, and seek to bring others to your divine ways...however I can. Oh, and if there is a way home...well, I'd love nothing more than to see it. Gracious apologies if this is inadequate for you." I said and lifted my head again, and noticed Serge was giving me a very odd look

"…What was THAT about Floyd?!" Serge said, obviously having no concept of prayer either.

"I was praying to Dialga" I said to him, grinding my teeth a bit in frustration. "Thanking for him for keeping time flowing – without him, we'd be frozen in time, so I would start thanking him this instant if I were you." I said. I sighed to myself – I clearly looked like a religious zealot to Serge, something my dad was frequently panned for, but I respect him for working very hard to uphold our noble faith.

"Well, I'm sure he'd like you for saving Azurill if he somehow could possibly know that you did such a thing. Anyway, go get some sleep – you'll thank me for it." He said, and rested his head and very quickly dozed off, yet as I tried to drift off to sleep, my mind wandered in other directions, more specifically towards the gods themselves.

Where was this place? I doubted it was Earth – perhaps it was an alien planet of some kind from across the cosmos itself. And yet I felt that there was a more troubling theory – the Giratina cultists often stated and emphasised that the pokemon originated from a completely different dimension in the fabrics of reality itself! I really hated the idea and possibility that I might have fell through to another plane of existence altogether, and quickly drove it out of my mind, but the chilling thought that remained, even during my sleep was this – maybe the Giratinists were right.


	4. Erratic Discoveries

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 4: Erratic Discoveries

Dear god, it's been a whole week living in this shitehole. I mean, there's no music whatsoever, and I still feel like a complete and utter stranger. Chatot and Loudred have been very swift in making it to my bad books, though at least Chatot can bring up decent conversations, which prevents him from being purely a total obstacle and pain. The almost military like approach to the guilds rules and jobs were not my cup of tea at all, but I really had no choice in the matter, and being in the body of a snivy? Granted, it's preferable to many pokemon, but compared to being a human? No contest. To make matters worse, I was no closer to finding out how this all happened to me, and I have suffered being here for a week – what did I do to deserve all this crap?

Pretty much the only good thing was some of the nicer guild members, and in particular Serge – I actually feel very grateful to have him as a friend at this time – without him, I would have been totally and completely lost in this world, and yet he was there and often made me feel like I wasn't all alone in this world. Ok, so he hadn't gone through what I went through, but he was actually very supportive. These thoughts raced around my head as I slept. Each night, I prayed that I would wake up in my real bed back home, but each early morning, the dream was shattered by Loudred yelling at the top of his voice to get me up. I was to sleepy to give an abusive retort back this time, as I felt Serge haul me to my feet from behind.

"Did you sleep at all tonight?" Serge asked. "You never seemed like a morning person, but this is even worse than normal."

"A bleedin' cold wind was blowing through that window – seems like you were more sheltered towards it – we're swapping beds!" I said "I mean, you'd think they'd have the courtesy to put at least a single layer of glass over it."

"Well, we should get through for the morning words of encouragement." Serge said, and sighed slightly – not even he seemed to enthusiastic about them these days.

"Yeah – smiles go for miles! Yay!" I said, putting on a very forced and fake smile as I said as I walked with Serge to the main hall. "It's not working..." I said afterwards, still locking my faked smile in position as I walked though and got the morning cheers.

"SMILES GO FOR MILES!" Everyone yelled, aside from me, who said "Smiles go for just over 50 yards." under my breath. Chatot seemed to notice, and shot me an extremely brief, but a look that said 'I heard that!' The group was dismissed, but we were approached by Chatot.

"Team Conviction, I have a specific assignment for you, by the orders of the guildmaster himself. I must say, in spite of your somewhat lack of spine, Serge, and your attitude, Floyd, you have technically had an exceptional first week at the guild, in his words." He hopped quickly over to the map and pointed at it. "You will be sent to explore by the waterfall several miles to the north east – we believe that it hasn't been explored adequately – that's where you two come in."

"Wow, I think we could be exploring uncharted territory!" Serge said with excitement. I thought it was pretty cool, but rather trivial. But then again, there was just a small chance that my way home could be around this waterfall. Just maybe – hope worth holding onto.

"Well, it's right there – go out there and report your findings, dismissed!" Chatot said very quickly and walked off – evidently, he didn't see much in us, though Wigglytuff must have.

"That…was brief. Well, let's see the waterfall…investigate it…I guess the best we can do is to head there after we get ready." I said and shrugged "I guess it can't be more dangerous or painful than receiving mind splitting attacks from Drowzee – that fucking hurt!"

We headed back into treasure town, and back to the Kecleon shop – there was something annoying how they would avidly convince us to spend big whacks at their store, and have utterly no shame whatsoever in doing so – they were both pushy, and seemed to speak in unison half the time. 'Welcome to our shop' 'Buy nine, get one free' 'This oran is simply fabulous, and heals all your wounds within five seconds of consumption', the list goes on.

"How about two Oran berries, two heal seeds – hey, they sound useful Serge! Oh, and some basic food and water supplies." I said to them, and bought them quickly before they would continue their attempts to get us to buy everything that we can afford until we end up penniless.

We started heading off to this said waterfall fairly quickly – Serge wanted to spend as long as possible there to make sure he'd have enough time to search everything about it. One again, the bright sun was clearly being picked up by both my leaves, and started to force me to be happy and a bit jumpy.

"Again, Floyd – you didn't seem that excited before, but you seem a lot happier about it now; I'm liking it!"

"Clearly, you still need to learn about photosynthesis – I'm getting so much energy from the sun, it's like I've drunk ten cans of Red Bull in a row." I said, my smile being genuine, and yet, induced by the suns energy, but it was also evident that Serge had no idea what Red Bull was. Hopeless. I should really spend as much time in the sun as possible – if it forces me to be energetic and happy, then I'd say it's probably a good thing.

"I think that's the waterfall way ahead there." He said, pointing in the distance. It sure looked like it from where I was standing, though it was way too far away to make out any details. After about five minutes we eventually arrived there, climbing across the rocks to both see and hear the roar of the cascading water.

"So where do you think we should start looking buddy?" I yelled – the roar of the cascading water was very loud, so I had to yell in order to give Serge a chance to hear me. "It's a bigger waterfall than I thought it would be – any idea where we should start looking, because I can't see any suspicious shit from here!"

"I'll have a look at the left side!" Serge yelled back to me, being sure to make himself heard clearly over all the noise. I looked up the waterfall – everything seemed rather perfectly formed here – the water seemed to roll gently over the side, and yet it was very violent by the time it reached the river below – the laws of gravity, eh?. The rock formations were almost symmetrical on either side of the rushing waterfall – it was actually rather pleasant to look at. I began to look round the right side of the waterfall – there didn't look like there was anything, but as I made my way back, there must have been some surge of water going over the waterfall, because I ended up getting splashed a lot suddenly.

"Blugh!" I said as I was hit by the water. I sighed and made my way back to the initial meeting point where Serge was.

"No luck from where I was Floyd." Serge said, looking a little bit disappointed.

"Me neither, I guess we co..." And then, that's when it happened - the dizziness came back again. My vision pulsated a pale red occasionally, and a soft ringing chimed in my ear from time to time. I heard Serge's voice become distance once more as my vision faded to black, and saw the streak of white light once more, and then…

I could see the waterfall again, except we weren't there. All I could see is some pokemon inspecting it – for some reason, it resembled Wigglytuff. Matter of fact, I'm sure it was him – he seemed to be inspecting the waterfall, and, suddenly ran full speed towards the falling waters and dived right through the waterfall! I didn't see Wigglytuff fall down the waters, and just as I was trying to figure out what was going on…I was back in the real world.

"…Zoned out again…" Serge said. "You sure it's healthy for pokemon to zone out that often?"

"Serge…I just had another vision." I said, and described in detail in what I saw "I'm pretty sure the fucker who dived into the waterfall was Wigglytuff, I'd be surprised if I was mistaken."

"Another vision?! Now, I don't know snivys well, never mind humans...I take it these visions aren't found among humans?" Serge said, and I shook my head rather slowly. Not even in any religious text, even those outside The Righteous Book of Dialga mentioned about humans getting visions of the future, or at least to my knowledge, nor did they mention anything about humans turning into pokemon.

"Serge…think we should do the same and dive through this waterfall?" I asked him. It was a stupid and dangerous idea, and yet, there was a thought at the back of my head telling me it was what we should do. I was fully aware that Wigglytuff was bigger and sturdier than us, and would likely fare better after being battered by the cascading waters, but for some reason, I knew it was what me and Serge should do. "I mean…following my vision lead to our successful capture of Drowzee, I reckon that Wigglytuff was verifying our discovery, so it would lead me to believe that we should charge at full speed and dive through the waterfall" Serge looked a bit uncertain at first, and then smiled.

"Y'know what, I trust your judgement here – besides, discovering a hidden cave would be a great event, and we will truly be exploring unknown places. You've been right before, so I think you'll be right this time." This put me in an awkward situation, what if I was wrong? I'd end up not only causing me severe injury, but him as well – hell, we might even die for all we know! We obviously must have survived ok for Wigglytuff to investigate anyway, and going into this half heartedly would definitely get us smashed.

"Well then, if this is our decision, then we need to go as fast as possible through it, if we choke at the end and slow down, we'll be bartered by the waterfall whether there's a cave or not." I gulped – it was still a terrifying prospect ."Ready Serge?"

"No point in standing around…three…two…one…" Serge counted down, and I took in a deep breath, staring dead at the exact place I was going to dive.

"YEAAAAARRGGGHHHHH!" I yelled, sounding somewhat like a battle cry as I charged head down towards the falling torrents. I didn't have time to think of what could go wrong, all I was thinking was charging as fast as possible through out the entire mad dash. I noticed Serge was just a wee bit behind, but I couldn't afford to turn my head. I then knew it was time – I pushed off the ground and leapt through the waterfall, praying not to crash into solid rock. The water pounded my body – boy was it painful to say the least, but it was over in half a second, and then I felt myself land on a stony floor. I heard Serge land a second after me, and I slowly opened my eyes – there was no mistaking it – there was a cave behind the waterfall after all!

"Ugh…" I said, pushing myself to stand on my own two legs. "Well, Serge, I was right again!" I said, smiling broadly – the minor bruising from the waterfall felt insignificant compared to the sheer satisfaction of finding a completely undiscovered place. Indeed, I felt as though I was leaving quite a mark on this world.

"Well well well Floyd, you've done it again!" Serge said, grinning broadly. "I know getting you to form an exploration team was a great idea – I mean, nobody knows of this place! Well, let's see what we can discover and bring back from this cave, shall we?" Serge said – there was no doubt, he was excited and well, I felt excited as well.

As for the cave itself, it was damp, much like the drenched bluff, which I didn't like. Not that I personally minded getting a bit wet, but I knew it did no favours to Serge – I couldn't rely on him to do some good self defence here to keep any attackers away for me. I'd have to get heavily involved and into the front-line of any fighting. I guided Serge down passageways in this unknown cave – Serge seemed to have a lot of faith in my judgements, but in all honesty, they were blind guesses. I had no idea where I was going.

"There doesn't seem to be much here, at least so far, aside from a few underground streams, and a few resident pokemon who seem to be frightened of us – I guess they don't know how to treat visitors – just, show no sign of aggression, and they might see us as friendly people." I said to Serge quietly, as we walked carefully through the damp passageways. There were a few underground streams that seemed to flow in our direction – we were getting deeper without a doubt. The light trickle of water seemed to echo all around the cave. A couple of water surges from the stream made Serge jump, but I didn't seem to mind. Matter of fact, I liked it here – perhaps they would name this 'Conviction Cave.' I liked the sound of that a lot – it'd be a good mark to leave in this world before I return to my own world.

"Hey, Floyd, I've found something pretty cool!" Serge said, pointing to a fairly large gemstone, which was a fairly bright blue.

"Serge, this is incredible!" I said happily. "We get a bunch of these, hid them from the guild, share the news of our discovery, and then…" I said, and smiled broadly, looking chuffed with myself. "…the good times will roll!" I said, and Serge put it in his bag, looking even happier than I was.

"Come now Serge, there's bound to be more of those big gemstones!" I said, grinning with the excitement of getting the gems – I might even be able to take some back to the human world with me. I walked down the cave, smug and fearless – this was going very, very well for me today – quite possibly the only day as a pokemon I actually kind of enjoyed in a way, at least so far.

"Seems like your warming up to becoming a pokemon Floyd, hehe!" Serge said, and I suddenly turned around.

"Shut it, I most certainly am not! However, I am warming up to the thought of getting a bunch of these big gemstones!" I said, retaining the symbolic smug look that snivys stereotypically had, as I continued to stride down deeper into the cave. A gastrodon walked in front of us, and noticed us, and it didn't look too happy – wasn't this a recurring theme in this world...

"Aw, for fuck's sake not again! Never fear Serge, I'll deal with the bastard in front of us!" I announced "Lesser being – we require thoroughfare – stand aside!" I said to the gastrodon, but it wasn't impressed – matter of fact, I don't think it even understood what I said, which really should have been obvious to me by now. The only difference between this pokemon and the other ones that it encountered in the cave is that this one didn't like us, and that it had the balls to stand up to us.

"Very well, you leave me no choi…" I said, but I already saw it chucking a wave of mud at me, which I skilfully avoided and swished my tail in its direction, sending a few sharp leaves to cut it. It was hardly an agile opponent, and was hit square on, but boy, could it take a punch, and responded with a water gun, which nailed me square on.

"Blargh!" I said, as I was hit against the cave wall, but I managed to get up ok – I was hardly down for the count yet. I looked my opponent straight in the eye, and saw it wind up for another water gun attack, but I was ready for it this time. I ran towards it, and moved to the side to avoid the attack and jumped on its back. It felt very strange, but I knew I had pretty much already won – I started using absorb to see if it would heal the couple of cuts I got from being slammed against the rock wall, and indeed, it was working. I really loved absorb, and I made a mental note to myself to keep using it often if I wanted to keep going throughout these hard conditions. I decided to just finish it by hacking it with leaf blade, using the leaf on my head. It seems like the physical variation I had compared to most other snivys was very effective in combat as well.

"And that Serge, is how it's done!" I said and bowed as Serge just rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Come now Floyd, you're learning, and it'd probably shrug off my fire attacks, so believe me, you are still learning, but perhaps you can be as good as me one of these days." Serge said, trying to imitate my cockiness.

"Ah, Serge, next time we see some aggressive pokemon, do put your money where your mouth is." I said and smiled. We encountered no more aggressive ones as we got deeper and deeper in the cave, and I took a large red gemstone along the way, but I frowned a bit as I realised something – they probably only seemed to be that big because I was about the quarter of the size of my human self. Still, they're great artifacts anyway – show some to the guild and hide the rest – a sound plan indeed.

We walked slowly into a sort of large 'room' in the cave, where the ceiling was high, and everything felt a lot less claustrophobic. But that was the icing on the cake – gems completely littered the place. These gems seem to have an odd ability to them – they seemed to form invisible hooks around the edges of my mouth, which pulled them into a huge smile. Or maybe it was just my lust for them, and the wealth that they would bring – either possibility made perfect sense to me. I immediately started gathering them, but I noticed Serge wasn't too interested in the gems. Or at least the normal ones which I was gathering.

"Floyd…look at this one! It's massive!" He said, pointing up to the ceiling, and he was right – it was almost as big as I was! The prospect of bringing it back would be an issue, but a minor inconvenience compared to the vast amount of wealth it could bring. I could fund a full blown expedition with seasoned professionals to find clues on how to get back home with that!

"What are you waiting for Serge, go get it! It'll be our grand trophy for out little adventure!" I said, barely being able to contain my excitement. The other issue was, of course, the fact it was on the roof of the cave, and we certainly weren't tall enough to reach it.

"Not going to be that simple Floyd, we might have to pile some loose rocks to be able to reach it, or even blast it free with fire."

"We find the rocks – I don't want to tarnish this beauty more than we have to." And that's just what we did, and after about fifteen minutes, we created a reasonable pile of rocks that I used as steps to be able to reach the priceless gem.

"Bah...it's stuck tight! No way are we pulling this out!" I said, after an entire minute of pushing and shoving. "Serge, go give it a try." I jumped down to give room for him to climb.

"Well I am a bit stronger than you, I think I can get this." I watched Serge inspect the gem…and that was when it happened once more – the familiar blurriness, the spontaneous dizziness, the world seemingly getting pulled away from me – no doubt – I was receiving another vision.

This time, I saw Wigglytuff again, and he was where we were – in this cavern with all the crystals. Just like Serge and I, he was very interested in the large crystal, and who wouldn't be? He was tall enough to get a good grip of it from the ground, and unlike us, he seemed strong enough to pull it out. He pulled down, wiggling it from side to side until he very suddenly stopped when water dribbled on his head, causing him to immediately push it back in with force. He swiftly jotted down some notes before turning around and leaving, and I could only guess there was some kind of underground river or lake exactly where we were. The vision ended right there, and I woke up gently – clearly, Serge was paying more attention to the gem, blasting the rock around it with fire to loosen it. This wasn't going to end well!

"Serge, stop that! There's an underground..." But it was too late – as soon as the gem landed on the floor, Serge's brief triumphant dance was quite literally washed away as torrents of water flooded through in what seemed like a plughole, and we were in the plumbing. Serge screamed as both he and I were drenched and carried off, both of us yelling in surprise and fear, as we battled to keep above the thrashing waters. Meanwhile, in spite of the fear gripping my senses, I knew I had to keep my head above the water. I spluttered as water splashed in my mouth, and I felt myself slam hard against the rock wall, dazing and cutting me as I was carried further and further down deeper into the cave.

The cave tunnel seemed to be getting narrower and narrower, and so much so that I would risk smacking my head off the cave roof If I kept my head up. I had no choice – I had to duck under the water and hold my breath and hope the water would take me some place safe – I just hope poor Serge was thinking the same thing. My eyes stung as if little needles were poking them but through the water I saw a little tunnel with light in it – could be a chance to get through this!

Looking back to see Serge flailing behind me, had no choice but to try and steer myself towards that possible exit, and hoping that Serge would be with me. The small tunnel seemed to curve upwards very suddenly and after bashing against the walls a few times, I was upchucked through some sort of vent, and found I could breath just fine now. That was the good news. The bad news is that I found myself completely suspended in the air. I could briefly see trees, but it all seemed so blurry as I fell down, and braced for impact. The impact came alright, but I landed in warm water, rather than hard ground. I stood up, and looked around – it all seemed to blurry and strange, and I hadn't the foggiest idea where I was.

"Hello? You seemed to come from nowhere! You almost gave me a heart attack". An elderly, but kind voice said from somewhere – I was still too disorientated to tell from what direction. I looked around, and I did see what looked like a large tortoise, which turned out to be the source of the elderly voice. My vision and senses became more solidified, and it soon became clear I was in some sort of hot spring – it certainly felt very nice, but then again, so would anything after being battered against water and rock.

"Erm, where…am I?" I asked, looking a bit embarrassed. "I kind of got washed up here when a massive torrent of water flushed me and my friend Serge out of the cave, as strange as that sounds. Wait, excuse me Mr! You haven't seen a cyndaquil around here, have you?! I sure hope Serge's ok." I said, but I heard a reassuring groan from behind me.

"Right here…" He said, looking like he had a worse time than me surviving the rampaging waters.

"Wonderful! I was worried buddy. Anyway…Torkoal?" I asked "You are a Torkoal, right?" I said, my vision still being blurred, not to mention my lack of knowledge of the pokemon.

"That I am." He replied "And before you ask again, this is the hot spring. Judging by your tale, you have no idea where it is, I'd better show you so you can get back home." He said, and I brought out the map from my bag. I now see why they issued waterproof rucksacks. All my explorers gear would have been ruined if it wasn't waterproof, and pointed out where we were.

"To think…" Serge said weakly. "The water took us all that distance." He said, stroking his finger across the sight of the waterfall to the hot spring on the map. I knew that Serge did not like getting wet unless the waters were warm, and looked even more shaken up than I had done after landing in the springs. Whatever the outcome, we were not doing this again – ever.

"Serge, take this oran berry. Supposedly, they make you feel better." I said, giving him one from my bag.

"Anyway, we don't see many snivys around here." The Torkoal said. "What brings you to these parts?" I gulped – I had to lie, or be seen as a lunatic. I thought the latter would bring worse consequences, as per usual, so I just made up complete bollocks on the spot.

"My family rejected me because I didn't uphold their traditional values. The snivy culture is a sad one, so I had to find employment in other places. I never actually intended to become an explorer, but on the day I arrived in these parts, I met up with Serge who told me about it, and I thought it'd be a great way of earning money while being able to toughen up a bit – y'know, since this place is tougher and more violent than back home, so I'll have to be able to protect myself somehow, or I could end up cooping myself inside treasure town permanently." I said – any doubts that my lies might give to Torkoal would have been put aside from the truthful second half. I was never a good liar, but nor was I terrible, and it seemed convincing enough for him.

"Ah, good. I won't lie; I have only met two other snivys – both arrogant and snobbish – good to see a more polite one. Anyway, you two should rest here for about half an hour – I'm sure the spring will help relax you after that rather scary encounter you had." He said happily as we rested in the springs. Serge looked a lot brighter again after eating the oran berry, and before long, we left the springs feeling refreshed once more. While Serge spoke on and on about how the gem wasn't too big of a deal compared to the first genuine exploration survey we done, I really began to wonder what made him in such good spirits about all this. To think that we could have died in that sudden deluge, and I seriously began to wonder if it was risking my life this severely for, even if it means staying here forever.

Regardless, we were going to have quite a story to share with the guild, that should even put me in Chatot's good books. I could at least say this to myself – the rest of the day would surely be better than a battle against the chance of drowning. I'd be sure to mention to Serge to not tell them about the extreme gemstone content though, and it seemed the few that I took from the cave while he wasn't looking were safe in tact.

"Well, I guess it wasn't a total waste of time..." I said to Serge, Treasure Town now within sight. "We can always return there and get some more gems to make us rich – hell, we could even quit the guild after a while as long as we keep this quiet."

"Floyd, you're kind of missing the point of our work – it's mainly about the glory and excitement of helping to map out the rest of the land and beyond. Getting rich wasn't my primary target here."

"We should be getting rich in the process, considering how important it apparently is for the people here. Still, history had it's great explorers back in the human world, which were pretty much essential to our kind in hindsight. I dunno, I just really don't get you – what drives you to risk yourself that much? You didn't even seem remotely put off by almost drowning back there!"

"Passion..." Serge said and turned to me as we walked into town. "...Is worth a lot of risk. Isn't that why you agreed to form the team with me? Isn't returning home worth that risk and chance for you?" I guess he was right – still, I had better reason to risk such stuff and I damn well knew it. Still, if he does bite the dust and die during an exploration, at least he'd die doing the thing he loves – there's a lot worse ways to die if you ask me.

I found that I really only needed one meal a day, while Serge required at least two, since he buys his own food on mornings. It was indeed a curious observation in my eyes as I wondered about my new body - while I was hungry, it seems like photosynthesise gave me some energy, allowing me to go through the day without having to eat much at all. It was only after comparing my eating habits to Serge's that I truly got the measure of what photosynthesise was doing to me.

Outside of the guild building, I saw some of the guild members talking together, seeming very excited for some reason. As I drew closer, I heard remarks such as: 'You did it?!' 'You finally caught him?!' 'The invincible haunter?! Arrested after all these months of fooling everyone?!'

This got me interested, and me and Serge walked briskly to see the half the guild members surrounding Sunflora "Hehe, when you say 'he...'" She said "You should mean 'they' - it was a ruse by three haunters in total - they weren't individually tough, but when I took down one, I was suddenly blinded - what happened then, the second one would drag the knocked out one to safety and out of sight, and the third one would pretend that he recovered completely from my attacks!" She said proudly "But I eventually figured it out, and took down the three of them with Loudred"

"Loudred? I wondered where he went..." Diglett said "He just walked off when I was doing sentry duty with him."

"He..came to help me. I really never got a chance to thank him, and apologise to him - I was a real... bitch to him, if you excuse my language. However, he was being mean to me before, but I really do hope we can put bad feelings behind us...oh, you two!" Sunflora said and waved to me and Serge.

"I heard this was an important day for you two - investigating the waterfall to see if there was an explanation to the seemingly unnatural rock formations at the waterfall, and to see if there was any secrets about the waterfall - how did that go?" Me and Serge smiled broadly, and explained what happened, much to everyone's approval and surprise. "Oh my gosh! Really? Did you hear that? Seems like I wasn't the only one who was successful today!" She said with glee. Obviously, seeing her fellow guild members succeed also made her very happy - she seemed to have a 'togetherness' guild attitude, thinking that the successes of the guild were greater than the sum of the achievements of individuals within the guild.

"I heard everything!" Chatot said, grinning pleasantly, which was a little creepy coming from him. "I must say, you astound me - I won't lie - I thought it was a complete waste of time sending you two to investigate the waterfall, but you succeeded in finding all that information?! Well, well! Serge, Floyd, and Sunflora - you've made this a great day for the guild! Mainly Sunflora though, that haunter – I mean, those haunters really needed to be stopped – more accounts of theft and assault than can be counted!" I smiled, but something told me that Chatot would go back to his suspicious and untrusting ways with me by tomorrow - still, he was in a very good mood, so I had every intention of making the most of it while it lasted.

"I actually agree with you for once." I said back to Chatot in a slightly piss-taking way, and he wasn't amused at all as his usual frown returned.

"Enough of your damn cheek! But still, I guess it was a job well done. I heard the others are all going to the coffee shop soon – you might want to join them."

"Sounds like a great idea!" Serge said happily. "Been a long time since I had a proper evening in there - to bad we don't have that much money on us." I smiled when I heard this – seems like even Serge was down over the lack of pay and had a sense of value.

"It's a fairly cheap place, you'll be able to afford it comfortably with this payment right here." Chatot said and handed us our hard earned money. "I expect a full report to be handed in on the details by tomorrow night by the way, just saying you went there and saw some shit really doesn't quite cover enough details." Dinner soon came, and it was once again pretty damn tasty, with Sunflora being her usual chatty self.

"Say, Floyd." Sunflora said to me, leaning over when I had with a potato stuffed in my mouth "Do you have gummis where you come from?"

"No" I answered without really thinking - it was an automatic response that was pretty much false - I have tasted sweets on many occasions, but she seemed a good bit older than me, Sunflora - mid to late twenties perhaps? I could only guess they were come kind of sweetie or something.

"Oh my gosh, really? This poor man has never had a gummi before! Oh, your are missing out, really! Well, I did hear that both of us and Serge are having gummi drinks on the guild according to the guildmaster, so it'll be a chance to try it out then for you - trust me - everyone likes gummi drinks, isn't that right Serge?" She said, and Serge nodded.

"Oh, absolutely" Serge said, eating a bit slower than me, but still faster than most of the guild members. In all honesty, I was wondering how much power Chatot had within the guild lately - Wigglytuff just seemed to trust his judgement most of the time - it was like Chatot was Bismarck, and Wigglytuff Kaiser Wilhelm in the historic years of the unification of Germany. Maybe I could talk to him more about his theories on the humans while he was on good terms with me, because, while a frayed end, it was the closest thing I had to a lead to finding out how to return to my own world. I finished the plate of pasta, and thanked Chimeco.

"You're welcome Floyd - I'm grateful that you appreciate the hard work I put into preparing and cooking the food - most guild members such as Bidoof and Loudred seem oblivious to it - it's sad, really. Anyway, great job on uncovering the secrets of the waterfall - when I was a bit younger, where I did exploring almost every day as guild work, I must have went past that waterfall 20 times, and I wouldn't have suspected a thing" Chimeco said back to me. "To bad I'll have to wash up after this."

"I'll give you a brief had if you'd like - I've had a fair share of my experiences with washing up, believe me - my mum made me do it all the time, haha." I chuckled merrily.

"Nah, it's OK, It only takes me about three minutes to do the entire lot, thanks for offering though. After all, I'm paid to do this." She said back. I just decided to hang out by the guild entrance until the others were ready - the sun was just peeking over the horizon at the sea line, as if waving goodbye to the ended day, but my day was far from over.

Eventually, as more pokemon finished their meal, they started making their way towards Spinda's coffee shop, which was conveniently, just outside of the guild. It was actually underground, and when Serge was finished, we both walked down into the coffee shop...to be greeted with applause! Quite a few pokemon congratulated us on making the discovery, as such a new team as well. Other comments included that I was an immigrant, and some theorised that I was bringing new skills in from other areas, and other exploration techniques. Overhearing all the praise did make very very happy and content. I mean, I hated this world, I really did, but at least I was held in surprisingly high regard. An excited zigzagoon and heracross shook my hand, and started rapid-firing questions at me. Jeez, I had only discovered some cave - It shouldn't have made me feel like a celebrity, but perhaps exploration feats were held high in importance within this community and culture.

"How's the exploring over where you came from?" The heracross asked me. I paused for a second - how was I really supposed to respond to this - I guess I'd have to make crap up again.

"Er...not nearly as prominent as it is here, really. I guess you could say that my recent success was down to having slightly different ideas for exploring due to the different environment...and luck. I won't lie, I'd say we were pretty damn lucky to achieve what we did without seriously mangling ourselves." It was honestly the best I could come up with. I mean, I wasn't going to tell them I had a vision of Wigglytuff verifying our findings at some point in the future, because who the hell would believe that? They'd think I was insane, and besides, if they did believe me, it'd be even worse - I mean, they could swarm me, begging me to tell them their future, and even If I would have visions of the future at any time or place when I wanted to, it'd be very irritating.

I had no intentions of telling them the truth - was I living a lie? Very much so, but it was a comfortable one, and no one seemed to doubt me. As far as I knew, Serge kept true to his word about not telling anyone about the real me - being a human, and having visions of the future. Then, I was bombarded with more questions - some I could be truthful about, some I had to lie about. They didn't seem to be suspicious of me at all, but I was wondering if it would last. Then, I felt a tap on the shoulder from the Wigglytuff himself, looking cheery.

"Ah, Floyd, I think you're due a gummi drink on me!" He smiled at me, clearly in a very good mood, and it was only until now that I got an idea of how old he actually was – he seemed to be at least as old as my dad, with the colour of his bright pink fur around his eyes starting to lose it's colour, not to mention a lot of the scars underneath in pretty much every location of his body, and it was here I really understood the extent of experience in dangerous situation that this seemingly clown-like character really had. The skin and fur around his mouth seemed to sag ever so slightly, but the very slight wrinkles did not leak any warmth from his endearing and welcoming smile smile.

I looked back as he led me to the counter, watching Sunflora walk in, getting an even bigger reaction, and was swarmed with even more questions than I was. I'd normally be bitter, but bringing dangerous criminals to justice was in the end of day more important than surveying caves behind waterfalls. Serge in comparison didn't receive as much - perhaps it was because he wasn't an immigrant, and everyone seemed curious of how my 'skills' from abroad translated into being a successful explorer. What skills anyway? I was good at bass guitar, and that was about it really. I guess I could run distances without stopping - about dive miles, but I was physically not that strong as a human - strong enough to do pretty much anything I'd personally want to really, but I never had too much of a heavy-lifting lifestyle.

"What can I get you?" A voice suddenly said - it sounded like it was drunk, and talking to drunk people while sober was never good for me - made me feel a tad uncomfortable. I turned around - it was a spinda, and I assumed he owned the place, since it was behind a counter, and it was, after all, named after him.

"Get this young man here a sage gummi tea, extra large mug!" Wigglytuff said loudly to speak over the excited banter behind them, and handed the green coloured gummi to Spinda. Upon briefly looking at it, something inside me made me drool. It looked so damn tasty, and I couldn't explain it - it shouldn't look that tasty, and I was not happy about any pokemon instincts making me less of who I originally was, but this was really a minor thing. I held back as I watched Spinda make the drink - he was evidently trying to show off while doing it for entertainment, but it fell way short of some of the 'posh pubs' back home, and looked very bland and amateur, but I guess this was good by pokemon standards. He handed me the drink, and I looked inside and drooled - again, I had no idea, but it just seemed like I was looking at the tastiest drink ever conceived. It seemed like Spinda was happy to make the drink for free as long as you had the gummi, so I guess I, or really, the guild saved money. Though I really did question the mix between a large liquidised sweet and herbal tea.

"Ah, so good!" Serge said, drinking his own one, which looked quite different from mine. In fact, I don't think it was even tea. I sat down, and slowly sipped my tea - it tasted even better than I had imagined it to be, and forced me hard to smile – I should really make this for myself when I get home!

"Aaahhhh..." I said out loud in satisfaction - it usually annoyed me when people did this loudly, but I couldn't help myself - so damn refreshing and tasty! Every nerve fibre seemed to be massaged by the arming glow of this tea, and it rested gently in my stomach. To make things better, Loudred just came in, and didn't bother trying to point out that I was a parasite to the town - he was busy talking to Sunflora, and they seemed to be apologising to one another. I didn't say a word to him that night.

"By golly, you seemed to be quite the celebrity right now!" Bidoof said as he sat down with us, with Corphish following him. "It's really too bad that my big achievement had to be kept a secret. He seemed a little sad at this. "The guildmaster told us that information on the 'secretive pokemon' I found was to be kept hushed up due to legends about it, and how others would likely try to hunt it down and use it for real bad purposes."

"You sure you can't tell me more?" I asked, being very quiet, taking a bigger sip of my tea, feeling even more relaxed, putting my head a little closer to his.

"Jirachi." He said simply. "That race of pokemon has already been proven to exist, but I found one where it made a more permanent place to stay. With the legends regarding wish granting, you can probably guess that the jirachi we found would have some real bad visitors wanting to see him."

"Did you wish for anything yourself?"

"Now that would be telling now,wouldn't it? Yup yup!" He said and chuckled. I wanted to know - I wouldn't help be curious, but I respected the fact that he wanted it to be kept private, so I didn't ask him about it.

"Hey hey, bet you two are happy you joined the guild now, huh? Bidoof was going to go AWOL at one point - I talked him out of it, and then what does he do a week later - find said pokemon that we won't mention again. You see, he felt like a klutz, and he felt as though he done nothing right, and then he did something truly special. It's not fair - when do I, Corphish, get my moment of glory, huh?!" He said and we all laughed together cheerfully.

As for the rest of the evening? Swimmingly, there was banter and more banter about everyone's explorations, and I even found myself being drawn into their conversations. For obvious reasons, Spinda looked over the moon - lots of money for him, but I was almost as happy - this really did wrap up my current situation - away from friends, family and other human comforts - terrible, but being here wasn't as god awful as I imagined it - I was probably held in higher regard than back in the human world, and lets face it - everyone does care what others think of them, don't even try to deny it - you want to look good in the eyes of others, and I was doing a very good job of that. Eventually, after things quietened down a bit, I decided to head back to the guild - Chatot said that he 'expected us to work just as hard tomorrow', so I might as well get some sleep. I stretched my arms, and smiled.

"I'm off back to the guild - great evening, see ya." I said to the others and walked out - it was peaceful inside, in contrast to the lively coffee shop that Spinda owned. This suddenly made me feel lonely - exactly what were my family and friends doing now? Putting up missing posters of me back home - they'd be worried sick, and the worst thing was, I could do nothing to return, at least for the time being. Being held in this high regard was cool, but it didn't stop a feeling of loneliness filling me - it was a buzz-kill to say the least.

My hands subconsciously twitched, as if I was playing my bass guitar - I missed that badly as well. I slowly walked back into the guild alone, my hands still twitching, as if they were in dire need to play my bass once more. I took the musical mood and my situation, and took out a piece of paper and pencil - perhaps I could console myself by writing a song about my current experiences? I mean, not like I could play it, but, in my inevitable return, whenever that would be, I can take my written music home and play it - I liked the idea. I just hope I wouldn't be writing so many songs about my experience here that it would end up being a concept album. Nope, I WILL return before I get that amount of content to write about. I sat on the table and started humming melodies that suggested mysteriousness and uncertainty, that would represent the unknown factors in my week here, which was pretty much everything - how I got here, how to get back, and initially, where I was was all unknown to me. I sat there for about half an hour, trying to think up lyrics, which I was usually pretty crap at, but I tried my best anyway.

"Masking sadness, I trudge on,

With no clue, no real hope.

But I will find the truth

And return home with open arms.

This I swear."

That rounded things off not too badly - of course, it was hard to focus with a hundred and one things buzzing around all corners of my brain. I heard footsteps getting closer - turns out it was Chatot.

"Oh, it's you Snivy." He said, and hoped over to see what I was doing "Eh, what's this here? Do you mind if I'm being nosy?" He said and looked, and, to my surprised, gasped in complete shock.

"B...but...b...HOW?!" He said, pointing at it.

"What?" I asked him "It's just a song..."

"...How, on this fucking green planet did you learn the language of the Chatot?!" He said, wide eyed and wide beaked. "How the fuck did you know about this?! Only Chatots know about our sacred language!"

"...Uh...I learned it" I said - it was the truth, after all - I wasn't born a human with innate knowledge of the western music standard. Chatot didn't look convinced.

"Did someone teach you this?! Who?! Some Chatot from where you came from?" He said, sounding exasperated "I don't know much about where you come from, but us Chatots keep our language to ourselves on this continent! Do you even understand what you were writing?!"

"Of course." I said and hummed the strange melody "Ok, you've got an E9 chord there, and..." Chatot looked like he was calming down a bit, but still gave me baffled looks in disbelief.

"This is news to me! Someone who isn't a Chatot and knows of our sacred language! They even say that this right here..." He said pointing to his quaver shaped head, which rumour had it that it was the inspiration for musical note design in western music. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself - the rumour was probably true - it seemed like a very odd coincidence, and the rumour was rife in the human world as well, but I knew too well - they must have had it from the humans that visited this world about 150 years ago - perhaps they gave the Chatot's knowledge of the western music standard - seemed like a viable explanation.

"Hey, perhaps we could see each others music, perhaps even do something together with music, huh?" I said, trying to be nice and open in the face of all this, but all I got was an unrelated response.

"...I'm not sure if you're even a pokemon anymore...and why do you and Cyndaquil insist on being called by your birth names – it's really not appropriate, especially in a professional environment."

"Where I came from, it's the other way round, and perhaps Serge had the exact same idea by sheer coincidence. Wouldn't it just be easier to call me Floyd, I'd seriously appreciate that – it'd be easier if we called each other what we wanted to be called."

"...Strange...eh, whatever." He said and walked off, and seemed to be returning back to his old paranoid self. I shook my head sadly and walked back into the room to finish my song - it wasn't that good, since I couldn't test it with the instruments to fine tune things, but I made did with it for the mean time. Serge came in a few minutes later, still looking very satisfied and happy.

"Well, that wasn't so bad then – I'm still not any closer to getting home though." I said, falling back on those thoughts now that I wasn't busy or distracted. I guess in some way this exploration stuff was good for me – it was at least engaging and stopped me from thinking about my situation too much.

"Yeah, that's really too bad." He said, almost as if he was in a hurry to get off topic. "Anyway, I was going to tell you a bit more about my relic fragment – I was thinking it might date back to an ancient civilization. I'm really not convinced it all truly started for us about a hundred and fifty years ago."

"Carry on..." I said, sighing slightly as I began to feel sleepy.

"Perhaps that we, or at least the ones from this civilization since you're not native to it, weren't the first. It did do research from it in the library, and nothing remotely like this has been discovered aside from a couple of instances, and both of the owners of similar fragments have passed away now. Still, I don't feel like sharing this with society just yet. Unlike the other two, I want to really find out the origins of this."

"Well, maybe there was a previous civilization, or maybe there wasn't. Regardless, I-" I was suddenly interrupted by Serge, who seemed a bit too excited about his own tales. I was starting to become a little confused why he wasn't as curious about someone who came from a completely different planet at the most scaled down guess, or a completely different dimension at the most scaled up guess

"I also lied about just finding it – I was given it, much like the other two were. It was from some strange green hovering being that I had no idea what or who it was. He, or at least I think it was a he just told me to look after it and to keep it. So as you can imagine, it just confuses the issue even further. I wanted to keep that part quiet for a while. Really opens up other possibilities, doesn't it." It was an interesting story, but for some stupid reason, the strange pattern looked familiar. I dismissed it as a case of phoney deja vu - I did have that from time to time with no rhyme or reason, so it was immediately flushed from my thoughts. However, something that was always at the very back corner of my mind - the feeling of being sucked down a hole of some sort, trying to hold on to someone's hand, but slipping in the end...I could tell Serge this, I trusted him.

"Hey, Serge, I do remember one thing about what might of happened to me - this, so far, is my only lead, and it's a very frayed end." I said and took a deep breath, and explained what I experienced "It seems to be a memory, and what's more, it somehow felt a lot more recent than me being drunk at that party - I can't help but shake the feeling that there was a whole lot I had forgot that happened between then - perhaps in those lost memories lies the answer to my situation, and before you ask, I had no idea who was telling me not to let go - I know it was the person's hand I was trying to hold onto, but I don't recognize the voice. Worse still, this frayed end is unworkable really - I can't see anything here that would help me solve it and bring me closer to my goal of finding the truth." I said, sighed, then smiled slightly.

"Perhaps we both have our odd stories - you'll find out what civilization that fragment came from eventually, and if it's not been documented in any library, it could be one of the biggest discoveries in history!" I said, and thought to myself for a bit - if Serge's suspicions were right, then, either humans didn't bring the first civilisations to pokemon, since it would be the case that there have been civilisations before those humans arrived. Or perhaps there was an earlier incident of humans coming to this world. I tossed those thoughts around my mind for a while before falling asleep. It was indeed a strange world I was trapped in, but the answers were out there to how I got here, and how to return - they had to be, surely - I wasn't going to give up on that hope. It was all I was really holding onto really, which was the sad reality. Never the less, I swore an oath to myself – I will find out the answers...


	5. Enter Some Nastier Things

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 5: Enter Some Nastier Things

It's been almost two weeks since the life-changing incident, and I was still refusing to accept that I could not escape this cursed world. My time here was filled with a few notable achievements, but not being able to even share it with the people back home made me miss them even more. As egotistical as it may seem, I could imagine my father panicking for my own safety and well-being as I speak. I could imagine there being some sort of police search for me, leaving my family and perhaps some of my friends worried stiff, and I was no closer to finding out what happened, other than that vague 'memory' - just who's hand was I holding onto back there - I didn't even recognize the voice. This memory was occupying my thoughts heavily lately - it was the only real lead I had to figuring out what happened and how to get back. However, I wasn't going to give up hope with the explorations - the memory would suggest that I went through some sort of portal and ended up here - a portal that neither me or this mystery man did not want me to go through. There had to be a portal back to the human would somehow - I was fixated on the thought of that portal, when I heard footsteps coming closer. I sighed – Loudred the living alarm clock again...

"Loudred, I'm already awake, thank you." I said, dismissing him before he could yell at the top of his bastard loud voice, telling us to get up. "You may go." I smirked, and watched him glare at me - he was pissed of about something to be sure, probably me, which suited me just fine - I hated him from the first time he opened his mouth.

"Hey Floyd...heh, thanks for shutting Loudred up before he got the chance to shout." Serge said from behind me, looking more refreshed than usual in the morning. We both got up and attended the retarded morning words of 'encouragement,' again...it was getting very tiring - it was never encouraging, and it never will be. As Chatot delivered the usual task of 'pick a job on the board and do it', something better came a long.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Look – I got mentioned in the Explorers Federation Weekly! Oh, and so did Serge and Floyd!" Sunflora screamed with joy and ran over to the rest of guild before they had a chance to get their work started.

"No way!" Serge said with glee. "I've read the weekly for quite a while before joining the guild - I always dreamed that I'd get a good word in about me! Did my copy arrive?" He said, as Sunflora went through the mail and handed Serge his copy.

"There we are Floyd!" Serge said, skipping the slightly larger article titled 'Sunflora, veteran apprentice of the prestigious Wigglytuff Guild, finally brings the notorious 'invincible Haunter' to justice', and went straight to ours, which was titles 'Wigglytuff Guild newbies discover 'Conviction cave' behind the waterfall east of Treasure Town, and became the fastest exploration team to ever make a class B discovery.'

We continued reading the article - it read: 'Serge the cyndaquil and Floyd the snivy (who seem insist on being referred to by their parent-given names) of the newly formed Team Conviction discovered a hidden cave behind the waterfall, which was large in size, and was rich in gemstones of a large variety, and an experienced team of geologists will likely soon survey it in more detail. They also discovered that a massive torrent of water that swept them all the way to the hot spring, almost a whole mile away from the cave, leading to beliefs that there could be some sort of underground lake or river above the cave. Serge, aged eighteen, described it as 'this is everything I hoped and dreamed to achieve in the early stages of my exploration career, and will hopefully be the first of many great victories for us'. Floyd, aged twenty, was somewhat less enthusiastic, and when asked in the Spinda coffee shop, he simply replied 'I guess it was a good achievement for us.'

'It is indeed curious to see an immigrant take up exploring - there has been very few examples over the past year where any foreigners have registered as explorers - so far, the only immigrant to have ever made a notable discovery was the named snivy mentioned earlier. Is there some unknown quantity to this particular immigrant here? Some skill or viewpoint that is only found in those distant, far-away lands? Who knows, but we will be keeping an eye on what could be a prodigy exploration team in the making.' At the end of the article, we saw a painting of the two of us, looking confident standing beside one another. I noticed that there were many paintings, since it would seem that they have yet to invent cameras. Still, I was highly annoyed at Serge for letting them know that there were a huge trove of valuable gems down there, and I'd be sure to have a word with him later.

"Wow, we're setting records here Floyd, I sure am glad I found you on the beach when I did!" This, and the article in a way made me feel somewhat uneasy. I mean, we were only successful due to this bizarre future seeing power that I must have picked up when I was turned into a pokemon - it allowed us to locate Drowzee alarmingly quickly, and let us know that there was a cave behind the waterfall. Without it, we would have just been a very average, probably a poor exploration team, and yet, this power allowed me and Serge to break exploration records. It was too bad I couldn't get visions where and when I wanted them, and it was also a shame that I couldn't get one of the past - perhaps I could have used it to see what happened to me - it would be a massive step towards returning.

"OK, enough of you getting cocky of your moment of triumph! You have work to do - get to it!" Chatot said from behind us impatiently. "I really don't know why the guildmaster vouched for you so much – let's just say that he has a hidden influence in the EFW."

"Excuse me Chatot, but what the fuck is your problem with me doing well in the guild? Look, if it's just flat out racism, just admit it and never mention it again. Or are you just in a bad mood again, as you seem to be most of the time."

"I really don't know how the fuck you two are doing so well...especially you, Floyd - I'll be running a background check on you soon." He said and hopped away. I was very curious to what he could uncover - he'd be running into dead ends constantly, which made me chuckle a bit. I obviously had no plans to tell him that I was a human - no point in making myself look like a lunatic in front of him - it's not like he'd believe me, and I can't exactly prove it per se. Serge and I climbed up the rather crude ladder to the floor above us to pick our assignment, when we saw two familiar faces...

"You two cunts?! What in the fuck are you doing here? They should have arrested you for mugging Serge!" It was that koffing and zubat mugger duo that tried to steal Serge's relic fragment when I woke up on the beach to find myself being a snivy, and their aura of obnoxiousness had not diminished since our first encounter.

"Doing what everyone else does here - being explorers!" Zubat said in his annoying screechy voice. "So, Serge, it seemed like you had the balls to come here after all, huh - kind of ruined the fact that you had to look to a lost looking immigrant to get you the guts to sign up as explorers."

"Now now, Zubat..." I said, feeling oddly angry - I didn't feel particularly irritable today, nothing bad has happened. Matter of fact, it was a very good morning. "...You do realise, that he may not have had the guts to sign up alone, but he was half of the equation that made the record books in explorations!"

"Big words from a such a pussy - you didn't even get involved in fighting - you're an even bigger wimp than Serge!" Koffing said - clearly, my words fell on deaf ears.

"Point being - you two are as weak as shit! Serge, the 'cowardly wimp' beat both of you at once, and now that I've now got the guts to join in the fighting, and Serge's pretty much conquered his fears, we are, well, several leagues above you." I said, smiling smugly - I knew damn well it was true. But, there was something I didn't know...koffing smirked a bit.

"Well, we, Team Skull, did not have our leader with us at that little tussle. I think he should just be on his way here right now." When he said this, I smelled a ghastly stench from just outside of the guild.

"Oh, jeez, that the fuck is that?!" I said, blocking my nostrils. All the others on the floor did the same, except from team skull, who didn't seem to mind, and Croagunk, who actually seemed to like the smell – he was always a bit of a creepy guy. The smell came from a skuntank, who was climbing down the ladder, clearly with no consideration to how much offence his smell was causing. "Dude...take a fucking wash! You're stinking the whole fucking guild out!" I said angrily, but he seemed to pay no attention.

"I'm with Floyd - come back when your smell is tolerable!" Sunflora said, also looking pissed with Skuntank.

"Here ahead of time boys? Chaw-haw-haw, how considerate - I expected you to be late again." He said, looking pleased "Please to meet you all - we're Team Skull." He announced loudly and brashly to those on this current floor.

"Yea..." I said, coughing due to the horrendous smell "And you're two subordinates are muggers who really should be punished." I said and I coughed again.

"None of my business what these two get up to outside of Team Skull related activity. In fact, if it's due to help, then I'll support them." Skuntank didn't look fully supportive of their actions, but he certainly didn't mind or have a problem with them at all. "Don't worry you two, we have no intentions of actually joining the guild - we're already quite efficient at doing things our unique way."

"Good, because I may not have to put up with your reek as much then, now hurry up and piss of!" I said bitterly. "Come on Serge, let's just do our task for today" It was another successful day for us, once again pleasing Chatot, though he was imminently annoyed by my 'shady' behaviour in the guild library.

"What are you doing Floyd?" He asked suddenly from behind me. I grumbled as the nosy officer peered over my shoulder

"I was looking up information about some of the non-civilized pokemon," I said to him truthfully, "I was wanting to expand my theory knowledge on exploring - after all, isn't that how you became to one time be the leader of the fairly well know Team Epiphany back in the day?" I said, at least making an effort to be friendly – as much as I hated and disrespected him, I felt the occasional attempts to be friendly might at least make his frustration cool off so he doesn't take serious action.

"Why...yes...how did you know?" He said, clearly a little surprised who I actually decided to make conversation with him

"It was in a discussion with Sunflora - you teamed up with a Feraligator, and a Hypno to form Team Epiphany - apparently, you were the brains and driving force behind your works, and you told me that you joined a small federation dedicated to discovering the mysteries of the humans." I asked innocently. Chatot sighed, rubbing his head with his wing.

"Well, yes - theory knowledge of what other pokemon do was definitely my strength as an explorer - I mean, look at me - compared to a lot of species of pokemon, I'm quite handicapped - Chatots are not really built for combat, but, throughout my vast knowledge, I could use it to my advantage - I could tell what attack possible assailants were about to use and act accordingly - it would seem like you are trying to do the same - quite commendable in my eyes - my team mates were always getting hit by attacks that could have been avoided if they could tell the enemies were preparing to use the attack..." He said and fell silent for some reason, looking rather sad "If only Feraligator knew..."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"I don't really want to talk about it, but no doubt you will pester me to tell you, so I might as well get it over and done with - he was one of my best friends, and part of Team Epiphany. But on one exploration, he was hit savagely by an aggressive steelix. About five of them were rampaging, trying to severely injure us, expel us from the cave, or outright kill us, we didn't even bother trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, all the attacks were ripping the cave apart, and it was about to collapse. I escaped quickly, as Hypno tried to pick up Feraligator and run with him, since he had great difficulty. However, he realised there would be no escape for either of them that way, so he had no choice but to drop him and dash for the exit, leaving him to die. After the cave in, we desperately tried to dig him out, refusing to believe that he was dead. Two hours later we found him..." He said, swallowed hard, shivered and said bluntly. "...His head completely crushed - brains, bone shards and blood splattered everywhere." He said and went pale.

"That is what his always-friendly face had become. Hypno was traumatized, claiming that it was his fault that he was dead, and, in spite of my best efforts, I couldn't convince him to carry on exploring, and Team Epiphany came to a very sudden and tragic end. I still see Hypno from time to time, but he was changed by what had happened quite dramatically - he just isn't the same person anymore. After some solo exploring, I truly realised that knowledge is power - I was defending myself against pokemon far bigger and stronger than me efficiently, all because I studied them throughout many sources, taking my own notes after each exploration. I could exploit weaknesses, and foresee attacks, which mode than made up for my lack of strength and combat potential." Chatot was clearly enjoying telling his wee story about himself to me - full of himself? Yes, but I never had much humility either

"Then, I met up with Wigglytuff when I opted to track down a sandslash who was trading illegal poisons. I don't know how ignorant you are, but of all the greatest explorers in the world, he ranks way up there with the very best. It was an honour that he wanted me to explore with him. I mean, he was a former Team Charm member! Apparently, he left because he wanted to be in charge of a team, and Lopunny was pretty much leading Team Charm. Evidently, he saw potential in me and recruited me. We we were very skilful together, but his leadership skills and...bizarre behaviour pretty much meant that we could not form efficient explorations, and Wigglytuff looked like he was having other ideas - he wanted to help the younger generation to become efficient explorers, so he set up the guild in the rather exploration-militant Treasure Town, which was also the first town ever made by the pokemon apparantly - it was ideal, as, well, you saw how much they revered you Serge and Sunflora for your achievements - the town is practically fully geared towards explorations."

"I ended up doing a lot of the administration work, and as the guild grew, Wigglytuff became obscenely wealthy, and paid me a good whack as well, hee-hee! In spite of all this, I still to this day yearn for my earlier days with Team Epiphany - I only get a chance to explore on Sundays - Wigglytuff often asks to come with me, which I am still very grateful for - he really is a good friend once you see past his eccentricity. Ah, it's been almost thirty years of my exploration career - set off when I was fourteen, and here I am at the age when I am going to inevitably have a mid-life crisis, still exploring...well...doing the administration work at least. Hey...between you and me, the Guild master is planning a guild expedition to fogbound lake - apparently, it's never been confirmed that the lake even exists - this would be suited for large scale expedition, to cover larger areas."

"Normally, we would never consider newbies to the guild to come with us, but you and Serge for some reason are showing massive promise, so you could well be invited...if you keep up your rate of work." He said to me, barely taking a breath - I could imagine him boring people senseless with his constant banter and rabbiting on about himself, and yet, I found it a curiosity - perhaps that's why he was trying to have a background check with me - knowledge is power, according to him, and he was trying to acquire as much knowledge as possible, and just when I was thinking about such things...

"...I have been trying to find out about you - there seems to be very little trace of you, but I want to ask you a question - where about on this far away continent did you come from, hm?" He said - shit...I needed to make something plausible and vague sounding to get away with it, and quickly.

"By the south shore." I said quickly. Chatot looked sceptical, and for good reason, since the lie came with a stutter that lacked any form of confidence

"Hrm..." He said and suddenly pulled at the leaf on my head. "Your variety of snivys come from an island a few miles east of the continent - life there was harsher, so the ones with this mutation, like what you have on your head were more efficient at defending themselves, and were able to survive better than the ones without. Are you sure you came from the south shore?" He said, and I responded immediately.

"Of course! My family moved there for a better standard of life." I said - I could not afford to look shifty - I could not afford for Chatot to become more suspicious about me - but what if the south shore had a lower standard of living? I crossed my fingers behind my back and awaited for his response.

"...Indeed...the east island seems to be rather backward compared to the rest of the continent, as far as I know - little is known about the continent, since it's so far away - I couldn't fly all that way. How did you get all the way here, hm? Travelled on a sea dwelling pokemon?" He said, clearly intent of continuing this 'interrogation.'

"...Yes." I said, kicking myself for faltering. "A lapras was heading there anyway, and I had to get away from the incredible snobbery of the south shore." I said to him, re-mustering my confidence. Chatot, fortunately, was looking more content.

"Indeed, apparently, the south shore citizens are a very arrogant people, and the population has a very large proportion of snivys, and the others in their family, and are generally speaking some of the most arrogant pokemon in existence on the whole" He said, shamelessly applying stereotypes to a race of pokemon. "Your parents, who were they?"

"Lynn and Kirk." I said, using the names of my real parents.

"Serperiors I would believe?"

"I think so, er, I mean yes. Yes they are." I said, stumbling over this particular lie horribly. I mentally kicked my own head firmly, yet Chatot seemed to be appeased.

"Most unusual that you would forget even for a second the name of the race of pokemon that you would inevitably become...well...if it weren't for the fact that luminous spring has for some reason stopped working. I mean, we have no idea what's causing it. You are aware that evolutions have ceased to occur anywhere the past few months? This is not a crisis for me at all, and for most pokemon, we can get by - but for some, such as those who give birth to pokemon who cannot breed until they evolve, such as pichu...could spell extinction of their kind if luminous spring does not re-function again at the absolute worst case scenario. Has any other luminous springs or other evolution ritual sites work over in the far continent?"

"Yes..." I said, desperately trying to think of details that he would inevitably ask for. "Wait...I think a few weeks before I left, I heard it being mentioned that a luminous spring over there was out of order." I was getting worried - how long could I keep up the bullshit for?

"Ok, I thought it'd be a major crisis over there as well, I hope for your people's sake that it also stops over there as well, and I seriously hope it's not happening throughout the entire planet! You must have been living under a rock over there by the way you were talking to me, hee-hee! It's getting late, I would suggest going to bed, and not a word to anyone about the expedition - I don't know why I even told you. I'll give you credit, at least you're a good listener. It's not often a man in his forties is listened to by someone who's only recently turn twenty...Goodnight."

It was then I came to a conclusion about Chatot - it wasn't only a racist thing he had with me - his never ending quest to obtain more knowledge made him ask me about my past - I guess the fact I told him things made him more friendly with me. He was a very temperamental fellow - I could generally tell what he was thinking, but what mood would he be in when I next encountered him? I wondered if even Dialga would know. As I walked off to bed, I kept true to my word - I didn't even tell Serge about it.

I don't believe in lying, unless its for my own safety when I had done nothing wrong - a maxim that I follow fairly strongly from the Righteous Tome of Dialga - lying was strongly frowned upon by Dialgans on the whole, including. We believe that it is a violation of humanity - evidence? Humans are not supposed to lie, and certain things happen to us when we lie - blood flow rate does increase, no matter how good or confident we are as liars. The evidence is in our own physical selves - however, the exception to the 'don't lie' rule, is for your own safety and well being when you have done nothing wrong, which is what I've been doing ever since I came here. I longed to hold the righteous book stronger than ever - I needed guidance, and I was finding it slowly getting harder to make good decisions in this alien world.

The next morning came swiftly, accompanied by Loudred roaring his ass off. What disgusts me, is that he actually gets paid a little bit to do this. Where's a fucking regular alarm clock when you need one...

"Should be a good day today." Serge said cheerily, clearly not minding Loudred yelling at him. I scowled bitterly, glancing at his cheery attitude.

"Humph, I can't be arsed with this...but I need the money and a place to stay...you do realise that, right?" I said bitterly, and Serge looked just a little bit disgruntled - I was never happy in the morning - I was usually asleep until I came to this world. Serge dragged me to the announcement session, grabbing me by the arm.

"OK, I have a stream of important announcements to make, so pay attention!" Chatot said commandingly once we were all here, looking at each of us. Not only did I see Chatot and Wigglytuff in front of me, but, off to the left...Team Skull?! What the fuck was this?!

"The first announcement..." He said and grinned "In two weeks time...there will be a guild expedition!" The guild erupted in approval; it was almost deafening, as the yells seemed to shake the very guild interior itself.

"QUIET!" Chatot yelled, making a far louder sound than I thought was possible for him, as it almost made me shake in shock of the sheer volume. "Ugh, I knew that would happen! Ok, the guild expedition is to Fogbound Lake, if it even exists." He said, and hopped over to the large map, and pointed to where he and Wigglytuff thought it was.

"Now, as you may know, nobody has of yet being able to even confirm the existence of the lake, due to, as the name of the lake would suggest, is perpetually covered in fog. Our aim? To verify the existence of the lake...and perhaps bring back any artifacts and gems we might find, of course - perhaps we might be able to uncover an unbound type of gem, and be rich as hell!" I couldn't help but chuckle to myself - I had Kangaskhan put the gems we found in Conviction Cave in the waterfall in her storage service, and tipped her some coins to keep it confidential - I wasn't going to share THOSE with the guild. They can get fucked if they want 90% of my finds.

"Now, not everyone can go - from what we have heard, the wild pokemon there are pretty damn vicious, and this is unknown territory where the visibility will be very small - we shall pick those who we think are good enough to come - prove yourselves worthy!" He said loudly. Wigglytuff looked far more interested in the large apple he was eating than the talk on the expedition - I guess Chatot was also employed to speak on his behalf as well. Granted, Wigglytuff's voice just spewed insanity, so I couldn't really blame blame Chatot. "And the second announcement - I'm not sure if any of you noticed, but Team Skull to my right here, have stayed at the guild overnight, and will be staying with us for the next couple of weeks. I would assume that you are wondering why - I'll tell you. These three have made a team effort to try and find the fogbound lake a few days ago. but failed to find it. However, they can tell us their findings when we, the guild, and Team Skull go to try and find the fogbound lake in two weeks."

Dear. Fucking. Shit. I am going to have to spend two weeks with that smelly bastard and two muggers? It's only getting worse in this world for me. But hey - Skuntank doesn't smell as bad today, and Koffing and Zubat? Perhaps they were one time off muggers. I mean, it is entirely possible they might no cause trouble, but I was getting way to optimistic - they looked like the sort who would be up to no good, and, with a name like Team Skull, I could expect something like that. Still, I had no intentions of talking to them - I sure as hell hoped they had no intentions of talking to me. As per usual, we were sent off to do our usual 'do a job request on the board', but, Chatot suddenly seemed to change his mind when we went selecting jobs.

"Err...Floyd, Serge...I need you two for something." He called from below us. I rolled my eyes as I climbed back down the ladder.

"Had a change of mind about the jobs?" Serge asked.

""Well, you see, we have a huge problem on our hands..." He said, looking very serious. "You see...our stock of 'perfect apples', as our guildmaster likes to call the,...they're all gone! I mean, we only restocked a few days ago. Either way, you need to go to the Apple Woods to get some immediately!"

"Chatot, how in the fuck is this an emergency?! I mean, they're only apples - it's not like we're low on other food stocks, are we?" I asked, looking puzzled.

"Look, the guildmaster gets...well...you don't want to know what he is like when he cannot get access to a perfect apple when he wants one. "The apple woods." He said and pointed to it on our maps. "The 'perfect apple' trees will be round about this area of the forest, and you can tell by the trees having far darker leaves than normal. Just bring back as many as you can carry - get to it!" I shrugged and left the guild building.

"I suppose we should get those apples then..." I said - it felt like I was trying to fuel a big child's craving for chocolate under threat that he'd destroy a prised possession of mine. And then I thought -exactly how old IS Wigglytuff?! I mean, if I was told that he was seven or seventy, I wouldn't be surprised either way. Based on what Chatot told me, and by the close look I got of him while at Spinda's coffee shop, I assumed that he was in his early to mid fifties. Back in my world, he probably would have received help from a psychiatrist, and it did make me wonder how he became one of the most reputable explorers in the world.

"Hey, at least it's a nice walk here." Serge said, and I had to agree - these woods were pretty much void of aggressive pokemon. I looked up at the lush green leaves and the golden brown tree trunks, as the yellow sun beamed down pleasantly, providing us with a nice heat that wasn't uncomfortable. I also so some apples - they sure looked tasty.

"Serge!" I said pointing up. "Are they these 'perfect apples' that Chatot was referring to?" I asked, and saw Serge shake his head.

"Nope, they're a lot bigger, and deeper in the forest, and the leaves are only slightly darker - I've been here before, I know where they are, don't worry," He said - the wildlife here was not territorial at all, and almost seemed to welcome us. A couple of caterpie stared from us from a tree branch as we walked by, clearly not minding us at all.

"Y'know Serge, there was a woods like this back in my old home back in the human world - fond memories..." I said, the nostalgia getting to me. "More than any time of my life, do I know appreciate those days..." I said, and swallowed hard, holding back the sadness - I had a job to do, and I intended to do it well. Before too long, we came to a very small clearing, and saw a cluster of trees with very thick trunks in front of us, with almost unnaturally dark deciduous leaves.

"Here we are Floyd - let's just jam in as many perfect apples as we can find and...wait...someone's there..." Serge said, walking forward slowly. "...Team Skull...?!" Serge was right - I was sure I saw - and smelled - Skuntank in those trees. We were obviously heard, because Zubat came out from behind the trees.

"Wow, didn't expect to see you two here!" he said in his usual annoying high-pitched voice. I looked formally at him, and mutually spoke to him, hoping to avoid agression.

"Well, we were here to collect perfect apples to help refill the guild's stock. Now, if you excuse us, we'll only be a few minutes." I said and approached the tree, when I heard a very loud fart that was so loud and honking that only Skuntank could have produced it, and to say that it was revolting would be an understatement – It was almost choking me! "OK, Serge...I'll just climb up this tree, and pass the down to you." I said, scowling at the stench.

"I think you'll find that there's none left." Koffing said, as I was about to climb up. "We kind of ate them all" He said, in a somewhat mocking voice "Look, we're having a gay old time, just leave us alone!"

"I somehow doubt that this was a coincidence..." I muttered to myself. "Ah, I'll just go up the other tree here..."

"Listen, Floyd - we're taking those apples for our selves after we're done - don't you be taking anymore." Skuntank said, sounding irritable.

"Go fuck yourself - there are plenty of trees around here that give perfect apples - how many have you three eaten, seven each?!" I said to them forcefully

"I'll say it again, Floyd...leave, or get your arse smashed all the way back to your own continent!" Skuntank said - he was pissed off to be sure. "And before you ask - I thought very highly of Koffing and Zubat for trying to mug Serge - using initiative to get what we want - it was just too bad I wasn't there."

"What's your point?" Serge said loudly. "I mean, we're only taking about fifteen back with us - there must be at least 200 perfect apples in these spots!"

"They're all mine!" Skuntank said, "Last chance - walk away or get your head's smashed in!" He said, with a somewhat odd look in his eye. I smirked at him, watching his scowl become more prominent across his face, which looked rather like a human...arse.

"It's not my fault your parents never taught you how to get a wash - I understand that it makes you feel cranky, but it's something you must conquer by yourself." I said, gave him the middle finger, winked and stuck my tongue out at him in an immature fashion to show how little I thought of him. There was no backing down from this incoming fight as he began to go from slightly pissed to furious.

"All right boys, I'm gonna help you get your revenge on these guys!" Skuntank said and charged at us. Typical violent nature from these pokemon...

"OK, Serge, do as we usually do!" I said to him, as he ran off to the side, while I retreated, using razor leaf to try and cut Skuntank - however, he was rather robust, and while he wasn't entirely shrugging them off, it didn't look like he was being hurt by them too much, and carried on charging at me, a little faster than I expected. However, Serge was ready to do his usual thing, and hit Skuntank hard with a flame wheel from the side, bashing him against the tree.

"Ugh...you two! Deal with Serge! I'll take out Floyd!" Skuntank said - he wasn't stupid that's for sure - our signature 'Conviction flank' was torn apart, which relied on the assailants, or assailants to focus their attention on me. I had no choice but to try and beat Skuntank on my own, and I stood ready for what he was going to do. He charged again - I could simply just jump over it and attack from behind. However, like I said before, Skuntank wasn't stupid - he suddenly stopped and quickly turned on the spot, and managed to ignite his own 'fluids' and spayed fire at me like napalm. This I was not ready for, as I had already jumped in the air. I fell down into the flames, and screamed in pain as searing hot temperatures stabbed at every part of my body. Next thing I knew, I was tackled hard into the tree with full force, and my body was covered in many different types of pains that all blurred together into a form I could barely even make out.

"That takes care of him..." Skuntank said, and went over to help deal with Serge, who was actually keeping Zubat and Koffing at bay, and both of them looked quite burnt. However, as much pain I was in, I wasn't out yet. I pulled my aching body to my feet, and stared at what was happening - there was no way Serge was going to be able to take them out by himself, and realising my pain wasn't actually crippling me, I ran forward, remaining quite quiet. Serge scored a direct hit with an intense and forceful stream of fire at Koffing, sending him flying back, and putting him out of the picture for the mean time.

"Oh, I'll make you regret that!" Zubat said, and went to try and bite his neck, but he had forgotten about one important part of the equation - me. As he swooped towards Serge, I leaped in the air, and twisted, unleashing my most powerful cutting attack to date, using gravity to help me strike with more power. It utterly mauled Zubat, as he went crashing on the ground, bleeding quite badly, screeching in pain.

"Koffing, you said that Floyd was a weak pacifist! Ugh, let's just end this and be done with them!" He said, as Koffing slowly got up, clearly in pain from receiving those severe burns. Serge seemed to have taken the choice to lead them into the woods, trying to divide them, as he retreated inside them. Good to see him being tactical like me for a change, and I followed him in.

"Be careful, they'll probably ambush us." Skuntank said quietly to Koffing. Indeed, I had planned to do just that., and once again, it does seem like Team Skull had been going for quite a while, and Skuntank was an experienced leader. They stood back to back as they moved through the forest - Serge had to hide in the bushes, while I hid up a tree, where we could co-ordinate our ambush from. Unfortunately, Serge wasn't well camouflaged, due to his own colour scheme, and was spotted rather quickly by Koffing. That's when I spring into action - I leapt down from the trees when their heads were turned, and screamed deliberately, wit just enough time for Skuntank to turn round, and brutally slashed his face with leaf blade. I drew blood from the attack, and the edge of the leaf on my tail was covered in a thin line of it. I saw Serge take the initiative and follow up by tackling Skuntank, but the sturdy opponent still stood. Koffing was also another initiative taker, and responded by tackling Serge, who crashed into me.

"Let's just do it!" Skuntank said to Koffing, who clearly understand what 'it' meant - they inhaled deeply. I was a bit dazed to tell what was going on, but Serge knew fine well, and blew flames at them, as they started quickly blowing noxious gas out way. My eyes suddenly opened widely - when the flames and gas collided...well...it wasn't pretty - all four of us were sent in all directions by the loud explosion. I was immediately knocked out when by head collided with a tree, and my head was badly cut and bruised, and bled a bit. I don't know how long I was knocked out for, but I was woken by Serge, who was shaking me, who was clearly in a better state - he was physically more durable, after all.

"Floyd...bad news! I've looked around the forest - all that gas...they've ruined the apples! I mean...would you eat this?!" He said, showing me an apple that now looked inedible, clearly rotted by all the noxious smoke. "Aw crap, there must be something we can do...let me help you up." He said, and Serge pulled me vigorously to my feet. I looked around, my vision still blurred, my body spiking with pain all over, and I was cut in a few places.

"Ugh...dear...god..." I said and looked around - indeed, some apples were on the ground, some still in the tree, all gone rotten. "I guess we could take some of the apples to Chatot as evidence of what Team Skull did - we might be able to get rid of them from our lives, or at least get them kicked out of the guild." I said bitterly, grabbing a rotten apple, feeling sick even looking at it.

"Fucking noxious gas..." I said and put it in my bag. Serge also got a few as evidence, and we started heading back to the guild. Needless to say, our journey back was a lot less pleasant - each step made the pain in my body pulse. Team Skull had obviously recovered faster, and had already left - good for them. Eventually we arrived back in the guild, where we saw Chatot waiting - and boy, he looked pissed!

"What...the...FUCK?!" He yelled, spitting as he did so. "You think attacking another exploration team is your kind of 'fun'?! Floyd - you crippled Zubat! I don't think he'll be able to fly for another week due to you slicing at his left wing! I sure as hell hope he can recover in time for the expedition...what were you THINKING!"

"Chatot, Team Skull attacked US!" Serge said in defence - clearly, Chatot was having none of it.

"Bullshit!" He retorted. "I could see it in your eyes, you hated them right from the get go - you thought it'd be a good idea to show your hatred on them when they were peacefully in the woods having a few perfect apples among themselves. Care to explain why you, I dunno, couldn't just get some perfect apples from the trees next to the tree Team Skull were getting their apples from?!"

"They wanted to have them all!" Serge replied, taking more of a stand than he usually does. "They threatened us that if we did not leave the woods and their apples, they would try and beat us up, and it went into a fight - THEY were the aggressors!"

"Save it Serge! Floyd, I never knew much about you, I'm not surprised you'd do something at all, but Serge - I expected a whole lot better from you! You disgrace the guild, both of you! Now, perhaps the pain of the situation will be eased if you would reveal the apples you brought for the guildmaster - I guess your task will be successful after all!" I frowned and sighed, I really did feel like punching the biased bastard in the face.

"And you really believe them?! Well, I'll tell you what happened to the apples..." I said bitterly and brought one out. "They started spraying Noxious gas around the area, trying to weaken and knock us out, and that's how these apples became rotten as hell." Chatot looked like he was about to explode his guts all over the guild interior from anger.

"Those...aren't perfect apples...they're SHIT!" Team Skull only did that in self defence - I mean, who can blame them? YOU were the ones trying to attack them! I mean, any of us would take a stand against someone who was trying to beat us up. So you brought back NO PERFECT APPLES WHATSOEVER?! I...you're coming to see the guildmaster about this! For the crimes of being violent towards a friendly exploration team who is helping out the guild...we'll let the guildmaster decide how to punish you - if it were up to me, you'd both be thrown out of the guild immediately!" He said, and lead us into the guildmaster's chamber.

"Friendly friends! Do have a perfect apple for me?" He asked, clearly looking happy and excited.

"No, because these two violent failures did not bring back any apples, and severely injured Team Skull." Chatot said formally.

"They injured us as well..." Serge said bitterly.

"Shut up!" Chatot snapped at Serge. Wigglytuff didn't look too bothered, or at least not necessary.

"Oh? But we're all friends here - I'm sure they would never do a thing like that - nor would Team Skull!" Wigglytuff said in a very cheerful voice. "Now, where's my delicious, perfect apple?" Chatot swallowed hard, and sweated slightly.

"I already said..." he said shaking "We have absolutely no perfect apples. I'm afraid that you'll have to go without for the time being..." Wigglytuff's smile faded and looked sad.

"No...perfect apples...?!" He said miserably, but then, he started looking frustrated "No..." His frustration turned to anger into rage "Perfect...APPLES?!" He suddenly bellowed - his rage and seething anger was becoming so much, it almost felt like the very guild building was shaking in fear of Wigglytuff. Chatot looked as pale as a vampire, and looked even more scared.

"Guildmaster, please!" He said, begging for him to calm down - and just as the shit was hitting the fan...

"Guildmaster - I have for you, a perfect apple." It was Skuntank, with a large cut right across his face - with a perfect apple in his right 'hand'. The guild master's rage very suddenly stopped, and he smiled broadly.

"For me?! Ooh, thank you, thank you!" he said and took it in a big hug "Yay, perfect apple!" He smiled broadly, and started bouncing the apple of his head, and clearly didn't intend to eat it right away.

"Th...tank you, Skuntank - I knew you were a good guy, unlike Team Conviction." He said, casting a nasty glance at us.

"That is not a problem - it's just really that Team Conviction really got violent there - perhaps they might cool of in the future - we didn't do anything wrong, and perhaps over the next few days, they will learn that it was wrong and what they did. But I'll forgive them." He said and nodded, clearly just trying to look as good as he could in front of Chatot and Wigglytuff - the bastard.

"You two, say sorry to Skuntank immediately, and to Koffing and Zubat when you see them!" Chatot said "Clearly, the guildmaster is too hyper to bother punishing you, but I'm sure he won't mind saying knowing that you two are forbidden to attend meals from now on - I also very much doubt that you two have any chance of going to the expedition now - but that is up for the guild master to do - now, you two get out of my sight!" He said, and we left immediately. Throughout the entire ordeal, I had to restrain myself very hard for smashing his sorry face in - this was injustice at it's greatest, or at least in my life and experiences. We sluggishly walked out, and then heard Chatot say:

"And I'll think of another punishment to suit this afterwards!" He said, and I retorted.

"And how are we supposed to remain healthy?!" I said bitterly "Without food, we'll grow very weak!"

"Buy it down the street yourself!" He said, and slammed the door. Serge looked rather miserable, whether I was more occupied by anger. We just sat outside the mess hall as everyone happily ate their dinner - Chatot, the cunt, came out yet again.

"Oh, and while you're not at dinner..." He said, handing us cleaning equipment. "You can clean the entire guild every evening - get to it immediately, or I will personally make sure you're kicked out of the guild! Now make yourself useful!" He ordered as he hopped back to the mess hall. I flipped him off as I started the cleaning. I was no stranger to cleaning houses, but this guild got dirty fast, due to the fact that most of them do not wipe their feet when they come in. Later, as the other guild members left the mess hall, they either looked at us with sympathy, or disbelief, or in the case of Loudred and Team skull, nasty sneers - I figured Loudred just wanted to see me suffer, really. the last one to come out was Chimeco, and she looked almost as pissed as Chatot.

"...Team Skull...those bastards! I know you speak the truth! I overheard Team Skull talking to Chatot, spraying their rubbish about you - I cannot believe Chatot believed them and did this to you - he even ordered me not to make food for you - well he can get stuffed - I did make some for the both of you - not a word to anyone, OK?" She said, and I smiled broadly, and we went into the mess hall, and she handed us our plates of food, which we happily ate.

"Oh yea, and something that might interest you - I overheard Team Skull and Loudred talking in private..." This got me very interested - were they conspiring against me? "In short, they all want you out of the guild, Floyd. Team Skull also want Serge out - you were pretty much set up, and Chatot played right into their hands - I tried talking to Chatot about it - he was having none of it though. I'll be honest, I'll be pissed if you two don't get to go on the expedition - you sure have worked harder lately than...well...pretty much everyone."

"Loudred particularly hates foreigners because he has had some bad experiences with them - he got mugged by a excadrill about mien moths ago, and noticed that a foreign cuisine trio left after about a year, taking a lot of their money home - he's convinced that pretty much every foreigner is trying to do that, including you, Floyd. Stupid of him to group and generalise everyone like that...hey, as long as I never get caught, I'll still make your meals secretly – doesn't Chatot know it's incredibly unhealthy for you two to avoid meals, considering that the two of you are active explorers that need lots of energy for the physical work you do?!" This made me very happy to see someone who knew the truth, and was on our side - I always count my allies in most situations. I happily ate behind the closed door, and then Chimeco said something.

"I did some research on the rumours of fogbound lake...according to legend, there is some who guards the lake - a being known as Uxie." She said. I had heard of Uxie before - he was a being mentioned in Arceism, the religion of Arceus - supposedly, it was one of Arceus's three entities used to elevate mankind from the common animal and pokemon - he was the being of knowledge. "Supposedly, he can wipe the memories of people - so that anyone who does actually find the lake, completely forgets about it."

This struck a major chord with me - finally - I could well be onto a lead here! I knew my memory had been fucked up - maybe Uxie did it! And considering that he is the being of knowledge...he might know what happened to me! Inside, I was very, very excited - I HAD to go on the expedition. It was a lead and a damn strong one - my patience in this guild was starting to pay off. I 'looked' at the glimmer of hope with puppy dog eyes - I would be picked for the expedition...I would. Serge wondered why I looked so excited - and I told him. We made a pact together to ensure that we were picked. Fogbound lake, Uxie, the truth...here I come!


	6. The Selection

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 6: The Selection

In spite of all the bad shit that has happened here, risking my neck with these 'explorations' and 'rescue jobs', living life on a knife's edge just to have a roof over my head and food to eat, there was, at long last, a glimmer of hope. The guild's expedition to prove the existence of fogbound lake would prove ever so important to me, since it is said that the being of legend, Uxie, lives who is said to have the power to wipe memories clean. Back in the human world, Uxie is known as the 'being of knowledge', one of the three beings of what they call the human spirit that set them into being civilized, and rose up above the pokemon and animals, well, according to the Arceus worshipping majority that covered this planet like a plague, trying to wrestle with politics, trying to keep as much as their poisoned doctrine in the world as possible. I thought that these beings were all bullshit, but I was having second thoughts now - Uxie is obviously heard of in this world, such a knowledgeable being surely had the answers - why, it was probably responsible for my memory loss.

I knew that my memory had been tampered with, but was it two hours or two months that had been erased? I could only guess, but one thing was for certain - meeting Uxie had now become my holy grail, or at least a major step towards the holy grail of returning to my home world, because ultimately, that's all that had really mattered to me ever since I became a snivy and wound up on this world. But not everyone could go on this expedition - the guild were only picking members that they thought were suited, and things were already looking bollocks for me, and perhaps to a slightly lesser extent, Serge for going, for we, thanks to Chimeco overhearing a sinister conversation between Team Skull and Loudred, conspired to frame me to try and get me kicked out of the guild for racist and vengeful purposes. While I didn't get kicked out, I looked like a violent bastard to Chatot, who looked more than happy to believe Team Skull's bullshit, and Wigglytuff, who almost through the most terrifying rage I was ever about to experience, which was averted by Skuntank, to make himself look good, and me look bad. But I was not put down - from now on, I'd be doing these explorations with a smile on my face, and not lazing about, and do more than what is required - I'd show them I was worthy - and through that, I can meet Uxie, and discover the truth about myself. All this slaving away would hopefully finally pay of soon.

I woke up bright and early this morning, before Serge, and even Loudred. I had time to kill before the announcements, and as I strutted past the other rooms...

"Wow, I'm surprised all that cleaning didn't tire you out!" It was Loudred. "And yet, you look as perky as you've ever been, not like you ever really HAVE been. I really don't see why you were here - you clearly weren't enjoying exploring. It's too bad-"

"-That I was never kicked out of the guild?! Aye, I thought so - I know exactly what went on between you and Team Skull – I was set up, just so you could see this guild become 'pure' again, and so I wouldn't be strutting off home after accumulating some wealth here." Loudred looked taken aback - he knew what I said was true, but he was evidently completely puzzled of HOW I knew about his scheme.

"Well...It's not like any-one's going to believe you." He said, and just when he was about to smirk, I retorted, in the most snobby way I could imagine.

"Oh don't worry, Loudred, you can keep your underhand ways of trying to get me kicked from the guild - I will be the morally superior one and work hard honourably...whoops, was that a big word for you? I guess you wouldn't understand a word like that." I said, smirking smugly - Loudred clearly had a very short temper - a lot shorter than anyone I knew back in the human world, and was trying his best not to have an outburst. "And yes, Loudred, I do plan to move back home in a few months, utterly disgraceful, isn't it" I said, and approached the steaming Loudred and back handed him quickly, but lightly across his face and said simply.

"You mad, lesser being?" I had wanted to do that to someone for a cheap laugh for a couple of years, but I was terrible at annoying people - but with Loudred - he was just ridiculously easy to annoy - I couldn't help it, and I needed some form of payback.

"I do wish you the best of luck for being picked for the expedition!" I said as I walked away and into the main area of the lowest floor. Evidently, Loudred was trying to look good as well, and an outburst at me would have done him no favours in the eyes of Wigglytuff. Eventually, Loudred woke everyone up in his usual manner, and everyone came looking tired, though probably a bit more perky than usual - I wasn't the only one excited about the expedition, even if I had more of a reason to be. I put my heart for the very first time into the morning words of encouragement, yelling 'SMILES GO FOR MILES' with passion. I had a new resolve now, and yet, it would seem like it was a rule of this world, that something will try and crush your good feelings as soon as you get them. This time, in the form of – you guessed it – Chatot.

"OK, you two do pick a job on the bulletin board as usual, and also, as far as the expedition goes...well...I can pretty much guarantee that Wigglytuff has ruled you out of taking you on the expedition for your disgusting behaviour yesterday" I couldn't hold it in this time, and I retorted.

"Only because you fell for the bullshit that Team Skull told you and Wigglytuff, which was convenient since I bet from day one you were looking for an actual excuse to hate me. They hoarded the apples, and threatened-"

"ENOUGH! Any more about this, and I'm extending your weeks punishment right up until the expedition! Not like you'll be going, or anything - violence towards guild allies...despicable! Now go, get out of my sight!" I so wanted to punch that bastard in the face - it was truly the first time I had a desire to be violent to someone without them being violent to me, or threatening me with violence, in a very, very long time. Was it the effects and violent lifestyle as a guild apprentice? Or was it just Chatot being an incredible close minded cunt?

Mind, I couldn't say much for being close minded - there was a stage in my life where I just refused to befriend Arceists, since at the age of sixteen, my hatred for their religion was at its peak. While dampened, I still believed their religion was a plague to the planet, much like the other ones that did not exalt the true lord and world preserver, Dialga. I didn't hate members of other religions, but they were deluded fools - all of them. Perhaps I was hypocritical when I dubbed Chatot close minded, but with him talking trash and making me feel like shit this often, who could blame me? Not me in my eyes, at least. Nevertheless, my spirits weren't even dampened - I'd show Wigglytuff I was more than capable to go on this expedition - no holding back and giving Serge directions - time to be a front line commander and really get stuck in there myself - no more would Serge be doing eighty percent of the actual fighting - I was capable and agile, and throughout these next two weeks I would show it to every last fucker in the guild that I was more than ready for this expedition! Our first step - doing two jobs in one day...

"Ok, Serge - looking at this map here - this is what I think we should do. Look at the job list - we can go straight to Conviction cave and rescue this buizel who clearly got injured while exploring inside - probably didn't charge fast enough at running through the waterfall, and then find this fucking dawn jewel that this chikorita lost at the serenity river riverbank, which is what the river that flows over Conviction Cave becomes. Doing two jobs in a single day will really help us get in Wigglytuff's good books. I say we do just that." I said to Serge, grinning. This seemed to make Serge look bewildered - after all, I was never this enthusiastic about exploring, but he understood my reasons.

"So, you see if you do find your way back to your own world...will that you be gone from this world forever?" He asked. This put me in a somewhat uncomfortable position, but I was going to be flat out honest - Dialga put a heavy insisted on being honest.

"Aye. There's truly nothing for me here - I belong in the human world. And before you say anything - I already gave you a head start on exploring." I said flatly, looking at him, and sighed "...you'd rather I stayed, at least for purely selfish reasons. Can't blame you too much, I'm a hard to replace guy!"

"I guess you could stay that, I mean, we work so well together, but I do understand." He said, but I could sense a bit of sadness in his voice - I was clearly a large part of success, and having me leave could hamper future ambitions - but sometimes in order to get what you want, you have to screw someone over. While it was going to upset him, I knew that in order to achieve my ends, I'd have to screw someone over, and, to be honest, I thought it was morally acceptable. After all, I'd make my family and friends happy to see that I am alive and well, which would vastly outweigh Serge's misfortunes, but even then, Serge was very capable - he could probably do just fine without me.

Neither of us mentioned a thing about it as we did as what planned – rescued the buizel, and got Chikorita's lost dawn jewel. Even Chatot looked somewhat happy, but remarked - 'trying to suck up to the guildmaster, eh?' as we walked back to our room, which dampened any real positive feelings. Outside of the dinner hall, where we started cleaning the guild building, we heard some conversation over the fast eating of the meals. About some dusknoir explorer, and his supposed solo exploration feats, considering that he had only been exploring for a mere week – seemed like we had some competition for achieving ridiculously earl exploration success . As per usual, we sneaked a meal that Chimeco had prepared for us in secret - it was very nice of her to do so - screwing the rules for sake of justice, and out health. She, along with Bidoof, Corphish and of course Serge were my good friends in the guild, and really helped me get by not being able to see my friends and family back home, even though I missed them more each and every day.

A week had passed, and there was no fuck-ups from Team Conviction whatsoever - I believed I was proving Chatot wrong, and we even got encouraging words from the guildmaster, who didn't even mention the Team Skull/perfect apple incident ever since. We were clearly in his good books, which is what mattered about the expedition, as he was ultimately the one who had the final say on who goes and who stays, and not the bigoted Chatot. However, something happened today that was different – after the forbidden meal, and we continued to tidy the guild building, we heard a for boding yell.

"WHAT?!" The yell came - no mistake, it was Chatot. "Why the FUCK did you make two meals more than you were supposed to?! Don't tell me - for Floyd and Serge! Trying to void their punishment, eh?!"

"I'm telling you, they were not the aggressors! I heard them talking about the trap with Loudred previously, and..." But Chimeco was cut short.

"Cut the bullshit already!" Chatot said, sounding like he was spitting when he said so. "You deliberately disobeyed an order from a Superior! This shall be reported immediately to the guildmaster! You can pretty much kiss your chances of going on the expedition goodbye!" Chatot said and stormed out of the mess hall, and looked at us.

"As for you two - accepting the disallowed meals will extend the punishment right up until the expedition! Also, your cleaning jobs throughout the past week were done to a shit degree! I will put this forward to the guildmaster!" This time, I snapped.

"Ah, go fuck yourself!" I shouted at Chatot, seeing things weren't going to get any worse. Croagunk and Diglett stared for fairly obvious reasons. "I sure as hell would know that if I was a native pokemon, or that you weren't so trustworthy of Team Skull, you'd think I was the finest new recruit!" Chatot looked like he was about to explode in anger, but I hadn't finished yet "And by the way, by the way, when since do you strut around here acting like you're in charge - either you're just Wigglytuff's bitch, or you damn well control him, by spewing your warped and outright bastard perceptions of what was going on here!"

In the background, past the steaming Chatot, I could see Diglett gasp, Croagunk shrug, clearly not giving a shit, and Chimeco cheering, but not making any sound. Chatot didn't explode, but simple smiled cruelly "Get to your room, now..." he said, and stormed into the guildmaster's room, where I heard him tell him that I deliberately flipped him off, and made up complete bullshit about how I faked a few missions, giving replicas of lost possessions to pokemon, and how I was stealing perfect apples from the larder, and even saying that I was violent to Bidoof this evening, pointing out that he was injured badly from his job (even though he was successful) and even saying to Chatot personally that he was ambushed by a few beedrill, and barely got away. Lying cunt. At least I got a few encouraging words from Chimeco, Corphish and oddly enough Sunflora, who seemed to be on Chatot's good side, telling me that he had it coming for years. I did accept that it was probably a very bad thing to do, as this pretty much destroyed my chances of going on the expedition, but I just had to let it out of my system - I finally told what I thought the twat. I knew his cruel smile as a mask - I genuinely hurt him, and, as creepy as it was, it felt good to do so. Evidently, a sign I had stayed in this world too long - I needed out, and I probably sealed my fate in not going. It was a bitter-sweet victory, really, and rendered my very silent that night, giving one word responses to Serge's conversation.

As for the last week before the exploration, Chatot clearly found it hard to administer jobs to Team Conviction, only ever making eye contact with Serge - the guilt of making up bullshit to Wigglytuff? Who knows. I sure as hell hope it was the case. Today, I saw Zubat again, still looking a bit injured from when I squarely leaf bladed him in the apple woods. Think back, I kind of shuddered at it - is was a vicious attack - I mean, I had never injured anyone like that before in my entire life, and worst of all, I thought nothing of it at the time. I was still struggling to recognize myself by appearance, and now, even my character and personality was becoming less recognizable. I sadly looked at him

"Hey, Zubat...sorry for injuring you like that last week." I said, and watched his slightly surprised expression, though not really in a positive light. I scratched my head "Really, I mean it – it's not just because I was asked to apologize – I didn't mean to bust up your wing that badly."

"Huh, such methods like yours are the norm here. I was expecting this - however, next time, I guarantee that you'll be on the receiving end of good beating." He said to me, and I raised an eyebrow. "You look surprised...I suggest you just go back to where you come from - even if you are as militant as the rest of us." He said, and I looked back at him as he flew somewhat sloppily into the guild building.

I still tried my damn hardest to shine as an explorer - hell, Chatot was keeping such a close eye on myself and Serge while we were inside the guild, that it was impossible for Chimeco, or anyone to sneak us food for that matter, and as a result, Serge and I had to take more food with us on the explorations. On a good day for this week, we sometimes did three tasks in a single trip - with personal praise from Wigglytuff himself! I felt myself becoming harder, and more resilient to the constant attacks from the wild pokemon. Well, not really, but I had very much mastered absorb now, so even moderate injuries could be completely healed over after latching onto the pokemon and draining it's strength until it almost passed out. It disturbed me, but it was still more humane...if you could consider something humane when me, a pokemon, is doing it, than brutally giving it a deep cut with leaf blade. Better inducing exhaustion into the aggressors than giving it a savage injury. Serge however was still the one warding off any possible assailants - none of my fighting techniques could come close to a solid blast of fire to the face, or a dangerous fireball-like charge. Not that it mattered to me - we were kicking ass, and reaping the rewards. I had gotten used to the huge knock off of our pay, but we done so many jobs and tasks, it didn't feel like that at all. Surely, the guildmaster would see that we were more than worthy to come on the expedition. Upon four days until the exploration, Chatot was being even more of a bastard than usual.

"You're earlier back than usual - OK, you two, you have time to tidy up the upper quarters while everyone is getting our tasty dinner!" He said, sounding happy - the cunt was tormenting me on purpose, and I let a scowl escape. Chatot was not happy.

"Any more words, or even a single gesture to me like that again and I will personally make sure, Floyd, that you are kicked out of the guild! Get upstairs, and out of my sight!" Authority was a bitch here - it's not like I couldn't flip him off - I knew now that Wigglytuff had little spine, and that he was border-lining on becoming Chatot's puppet. I did not doubt for a second that he could persuade him into kicking me from the guild, and if that were to happen, I'd be homeless, jobless and my chance to talk to Uxie would be all but gone. I grumbled when he was out of earshot.

"Floyd, could you wash the pillars? I can't climb up then." Serge said, passing me a wet cloth. "I bought us some food that isn't just the bare basics for once - thought we deserved something decent for once. We might as well eat it once we're done with the pillars and walls."

"Oh, excellent!" I said to him smiling. "I was getting tired of working my ass off and getting food that is barely passable." I didn't find the cleaning hard, but it was incredibly laborious, especially when working to Chatot's standards - the bastard was so determined when it came to keeping the guild's prestige, that he demanded that the entire guild was cleaned top to bottom daily! After we opened the bag, and started eating a hot dog each, which was still better than the odd bit of either slightly unripe fruit, or, quite frankly, crap sandwiches that the kecleon brothers sloppily put together and sold. It somehow felt very satisfying eating it, but as we made our way downstairs after the top and middle floors had been cleaned, we heard Chatot's irritating irritated voice again.

"...You stubborn bitch!" I heard him say, the voice coming in from the mess hall - my nosy nature got the better of me, and I immediately started to eves drop. "You get employed to cook food - and you only make twelve dinners, when there are thirteen of us eating? And of all the people who don't get a plate of food, it's me!"

"Perhaps, now you understand why food deprivation is a disgusting punishment! If I just left you without food like this, you'd be very weak by the morning!" It was Chimeco for sure.

"...It...was...on PURPOSE?!" Chatot yelled, making that strange squawking-spitting noise. "What the fuck are you playing it?! Right, that does it - you want to make only twelve dinners for the next few days? Fine - but you will be the one who will miss out on your meal! That's my final word!" He said and started storming out. "Oh, and after you wash up, you can make my dinner thank you very much! Unless you want the punishment extended beyond the expedition start date, of course." He said, and me and Serge quickly made ourselves look oblivious to the situation, and started cleaning up before Chatot saw us.

"Hm, I see you're already downstairs - keep at it, and don't be sloppy!" He ordered as he strutted off. I looked at him, and I just pictured myself crippling him with a leaf blade, much like what I did to zubat. God damn it, if he wasn't in a position of power, I would happily do that – perhaps the event at Apple Woods was the excuse he was looking for to hate me and went gun-ho and capitalised the living crap out of it.

Later that night, I was taking a stroll by myself in treasure town - I often found it a stress-reliever from even Chatot's presence, let alone his ordering. I was stretching my arms and tail (having a tail still felt abnormal, even today), trying to wring out any negativity, which while it wasn't quite working, did at least make things a wee bit better. At that point, however, I heard a familiar voice...

"Hey hey...life in the guild? Been good for the most part." It was Corphish, no doubt about it - there was no mistaking his distinctive voice, and his constantly repeated 'hey hey' - I did wonder if it was an outright verbal tick or not. "Yea, the guys are just as nice as normal, the new guys, Bidoof, A Cyndaquil called Serge, must come from the other side of the continent where they don't like being referred by species name too much, and a snivy of all things, called Floyd - didn't expect to see a foreigner join." I had no idea who he was talking to, but I really couldn't help but be curious, so I continued to listen in.

"Are you sure he's safe?!" A hurried, older voice said "I mean..."

"Hey hey, don't jump to conclusions like that - he's a swell guy! Chatot on the other hand - dear god, what an asshole!"

"Language, Corphish!" A female voice said. I decided to act casual and walk by, pretending not to notice.

"Aw come on mum, I'm sixteen!" Corphish complained "Anyway, he always treated us like cr...dirt, and now, he's getting even worse for it...Oh, hey Floyd!" He said, calling over to me "Come back me up here - explain to my parents why Chatot is such an...a horrible person." I slowly walked over - there were two crawdaunt there, obviously his parents

"Oh hi there" The father said. "You one of Corphish's friends then?"

"Oh aye." I said, I held out my hand for a second to shake in a friendly gesture, but saw that it wasn't a good idea. "Heh. sorry, probably not the best idea, due to your claws."

"Ah, it's OK" Corphish's dad said and chuckled. "So is my son blowing the whole Chatot ordeal out of proportion or..."

"I can't say I like him either - I mean, he's outright horrible towards me, and falsely accuses me for all kinda of stuff I havn't done."

"That's absolutely true" Corphish said and nodded.

"He can't be that bad surely, for the second in command of such a prestigious guild." The mother said. "Well, Floyd, we were just seeing how our son was doing at the guild - it's been about half a year since he joined, and seems to be doing very well, and how about you?"

"Hehe, well, I would say that I've been successful - probably havn't been enjoying it as much as Corphish though."

"Due to Chatot?"

"Well, I was kind of recruited by a friend I met when I came here, Serge. I had no interest in exploring before hand, but it was a good employment opportunity, and I seem to be doing well - it's grown on me recently as well. But yeah, Chatot doesn't help."

"Well, it is known to be a strict guild." The father said, rubbing his claws together. "We were really reluctant to let Corphish join - we admit that we didn't have faith that he'd do well or like it, but we were very wrong. Well, we're heading off now, it's late - we'll see you soon Corphish." They said and walked off together. Corphish and I walked back inside the guild, and soon went to bed, tiredness starting to set in earlier each day.

The remaining days up to the selection just got more and more tense. Every day felt like by blood was flowing that bit faster overall, and I was becoming more prone to spontaneous flinching – I was pretty bad for flinching at shadows, but this was worse than normal. As more irritable as I became, I never burst out at Chatot again - just hoping that Wigglytuff would either see past Chatot's bullshit, or forgive it. Everyone was talking less, clearly trying to look good, or to impress Wigglytuff by seeming like diligent workers. I was no different, nor was Serge for that matter. The others were now doing multiple jobs in a day as well, clearly seeing that it would impress the guildmaster - I was sure hoping that they weren't as determined as I was, but I was wrong. In spite of my incredibly strong reason to go, it didn't seem like I was showing any more effort than the others.

"We done the best we could of really." I said to Serge, as we lied down in our beds at the night before the selection "Aside from outbursting at Chatot and accepting food we weren't supposed to have, I don't think we could have done things better in all honesty."

"Yea, and besides, it's not like our faults were to do with the exploring itself. We're bound to be picked, and maybe you'll find the answers you're looking for is Uxie really is there..." He said. I don't know why, but I thought there was a hint of sadness in his voice. It was clear - from his selfish perspective, he wanted to me to stay as his exploration partner, and as cocky as it seemed, I didn't exactly blame him for it. I mean, I guess I really did kick start his successful career as an explorer, but I could tell that he was also trying to help me - after all, it was only from his selfish perspective, and not his utilitarian viewpoint, and he did divert me from being homeless, and helped give me at least some sense of hope.

Sleep that night? Nigh on impossible. Matter of fact, I eventually stole one of Serge's sleep seeds in order to quickly put myself to sleep - was I bit of a jerk? Yeah, probably, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I felt my consciousness slip away as the seed took effect, and all the tension in my body melted away as my eyes shut, and my whole body felt very relaxed, as sleep came.

Loudred knew his usual waking-everyone-up duties weren't necessary this morning - matter of fact, he was the last one up, since he felt cocky enough that he'd be picked for sure. We all sat in the main hall, not speaking much at all, only exchanging the occasional low murmur to each other, and even that was very sporadic.

"Hey, think you're getting picked?" Corphish said to me, who wasn't quite as quiet as the others. I inhaled slightly, and responded vaguely.

"...Yeah...yeah, I think I will..." I said, not moving my head. I was looking blankly, and yet lazily at the door of Wigglytuff's office. I could hear very quiet talk between him and Chatot - no doubt, they were finalising their decisions. Returning to my home word or being doomed to stay here for the rest of my life could very well depend on this. I drummed my fingers on the floor nervously, when suddenly Wigglytuff burst from his office.

"EXPEDITION!" He yelled and suddenly ran outside of the building and out of sight, carrying a huge bag. Chatot walked out of the office in the opposite fashion - calmly, slowly, and seriously.

"...He is rather lively!" He said, looking cheery for a second. "OK, we have made our decisions, but I will first briefly announce what will happen" He said, and took a look at his papers, muttering to himself. "OK, all those that have been selected to come, you will get ready immediately, and we are due to head off to where Fogbound Lake is, or supposedly is at least, in two hours - we shall meet at the watering hole outside of the guild. The guildmaster and I will be getting the extra materials, such as tents, and we will ask those that are coming to share the load. Also, we will be goin..." he was however cut off by an impatient Corphish then.

"Who's picked, who got selected?!" He said, evidently, he was holding it in before, but lost it. Chatot looked very irritated, almost snapping at Corphish.

"Shortly, Corphish! Quiet!" He said loudly, grumbled, and continued to speak "As I said, in three different groups, so we do not get slowed down too much. As Wigglytuff and I will be the fastest there, we will be setting up the tents in time for everyone else's arrival." He looked at us all straightly "...You just want me to tell who's coming...very well..." He said. No one in the guild was making a sound, not even a little shuffle, no heavy breathing. Just dead silence, which made the air in the guild very still. Chatot coughed, which made everyone inhale inaudibly, and then we heard...

"Wigglytuff and I, obviously, as well as Team Skull...and, this explorer, is quite possibly our most talented student...Sunflora!" He said, but was cut short by a very lively living sunflower who screamed in delight.

"Oh my gosh, oh my sweet gosh, YES!" She yelled and ran outside of the building. Chatot looked around after her.

"Just you go and get ready!" He said after her. "Anyway..." He said, and the still, tense air returned "This one, though a very clinical approach to exploring, he's proved that while he's unnoticed to some, a very talented explorer...Croagunk!" There was not much of a reaction from him, aside from himself saying:

"...Cool..." He stretched his arms, and although he didn't seem that excited, he evidently seemed pleased with himself. Chatot coughed again, and looked at his papers.

"A younger one this time - an extremely diligent worker and explorer...Diglett" Chatot announced, and Diglett's eyes widened in surprise and happiness.

"Dad! I did it!" He said, in a higher pitched voice than usual "Is my dad coming as well?" He asked Chatot almost immediately, who smiled back and said.

"Yes, Dugtrio has also proved worthy" He said and nodded.

"Ah, this couldn't get any better - father and son on an adventure of our lives!" Dugtrio said proudly "I've been waiting for this moment when we both signed up at the guild." We had no idea how many would be picked - no limit was ever mentioned to us, but we had no idea if there was one discussed behind closed doors. Chatot inhaled, and announced the next chosen explorer.

"Um...not expected at all by my standards, but who am I to question the guildmaster's judgements? Although, he has worked his fur off very hard lately, and has made dramatic improvements over the last week..." Oh, this had to be me for sure - after all, I had been working double time since the revelation that it could lead to my way home, and what did I hear? The only word that put me off was 'fur', and sadly, that suspicion turned out to be correct.

"Bidoof!" Chatot announced, pointing to him as best as he could with his wing. Bidoof was so welled up with happiness and surprise, that he let tears of joy roll down his face gently, and promptly hugged Corphish, much to his surprise.

"I...oh...I never thought this would happen!" He said, struggling to form the words as he spoke words of rather confused joy. "I did it!"

"Indeed you have Bidoof! Now, why don't you calm down a bit, and go and get ready." Chatot said warmly, and Bidoof slowly walked out of the guild building, clearly trying to hold back the tears. That was now half of us - the remaining five had no idea if that was it, or there was more to come. The air got even thicker with tension, and all of us were apprehensive, aside from Loudred - he looked fed up.

"Listen, Chatot, I'm obviously one of the better explorers here - just get it over with - I'm going." Loudred said, sounding extremely cocky. Chatot seemed to sigh and grunt at the same time, and simply said.

"Yes, you've been picked. Well done, but less of your cheek!" Loudred just chanted some sort of victory theme as he stomped happily outside of the building, clearly, very happy with himself. This left us with four left, and Chatot didn't looked finished quite let.

"This explorer, has been working overtime recently, and has actually done more jobs than anyone else throughout the past fortnight..." OK, now thus was me for sure this time, or at least Serge - either way, it was good. I inhaled, as I waited for the announcement. "Very new to the guild, but, the occasional large screw-up aside, he has had a large amount of successes ever since he joined...Serge!" I heard Serge exhale loudly, looked relieved, and he seemed to cheer silently, thrusting one arm in the air. I patted him on the back, congratulating him.

"Out-fucking-standing!" I said happily for him.

"Oh, yeah, and you're pretty much going for sure now - my successes are your successes!" Serge said happily back, looking very, very pleased. I turned to look at Chatot expectantly, and heard, watched, and felt him say...

"And as for you three..." I didn't need to hear any more - it was him saying that myself, Chimeco and Corphish were turned down. I caught on quite a bit quicker than the others. I felt disappointment and anger surge through every fibre of my body, and It had to be let out.

"FUCK! FUCK!" I screamed, and stormed towards my room, and then towards a not-very-surprised looking Chatot. "What the fuck do I not have that Serge does?! Answer me you piece of shit!" I yelled, saliva going from my mouth and spraying on Chatot. Chatot wiped my spit off his face, and responded, surprisingly calmly.

"If I wasn't so gleeful about going on an expedition, I would punish you to solely doing guild maintenance for a whole month. But that aside, you simply did not do nearly as much fighting as Serge, and he has proved himself to be far better at defending himself." Chatot responded formally. I wasn't too impressed, however.

"That's because I was the strategy man of our two man team! You think that Serge would have made it anywhere without me?! And weren't you the one who took a very strategical and methodical approach to exploring?! You can't simply not have me go, I'm far to valuable to this guild!"

"That's true, but it's me and the guildmaster who will be doing that - I will say that you are good at approaching hostile situations with caution, and plan of how you take down enemies, but it's the guildmaster and myself that will be doing that - we aren't in need of such skills, and your other ones, such as fighting ability, speed of doing the tasks, and general common sense of the land just doesn't match up to what we need. Sorry snivy, but you're staying behind with Chimeco and Corphish." I was crushed. No wait, that was an understatement, I was devastated - of all my efforts that I put out, it amounted to nothing - now, there was no chance of seeing Uxie, and a key hope, and pretty much the only hope I knew about that could possibly lead to myself finding the answers and returning home had been shattered right in front of my eyes. I sighed miserably, and returned to my room - I had no intentions of doing any job for that day, whether Chatot asked me to or not. I fell on top of my pile of straw - not my bed - bed was too good a term to describe it, and exhaled miserably. At least nobody was there to mock me for being rejected...

The rest of the day, at least after I got out of bed again, was between me and the two others, bantering about the guild's decision to not take them.

"It's bullshit, I tell you - I mean, no offence to Bidoof, but I am just a better explorer than him - he worked his ass of yes, and did make a massive improvement...but that didn't actually make him very good. Bottom line is, if he was accepted, I should have been accepted - I don't see what the hell he has, and I don't - same goes for you, Floyd, you downright outclass him." Corphish ranted on and on, storming about the main hall.

"No - I'm just a strategy man, and apparently, that counts for jack shit in the expedition."I said grumpily. Chimeco then chimed in.

"Apparently, my cooking and convenience skills aren't required either - according for them, they 'can manage for a few days without me.'" She said and sighed. "And that I never did enough job notice board jobs - kind of hard to do when you cook, and act as a receptionist for most of the day!" She shook her head sadly "Ah, they'll have fun, at least..." She said, but everything in her voice told me that she wanted to be with them on the expedition. As for me, I only really cared about finding Uxie. I swallowed, and told myself - it was just a vague rumour - he probably isn't even there, if he even exists...

Chimeco cooked us a meal that evening, which was of purposely high standard to help ease the pain of being rejected. He solemnly ate it, not speaking much, and merely exchanging the occasional word to each other, and stooped low enough to talk about the weather - clearly, a sign that we were desperate to make conversation, but we were failing utterly. I eventually returned to my room, after having a drink with Corphish in the Spinda Coffee Shop - we did not mention the expedition, and we were both very thankful nobody asked about it, but we had a feeling they already knew, and didn't ask us about it out of respect. It was almost midnight, Sunday evening - this would have been another church service I would be forced to miss. I longed to go to them again, and to help connect with my lord, but a prayer would have to suffice.

"Dialga...you may be a bit bored of me exalting you every prayer, so I'll just get it over quickly with now - thanks for keeping the world's time in order and the like but...I feel as though injustice as been done to me. it seems to dully burn my veins and makes me feel heavy with sadness and anger. I want to avoid such emotions, but I feel lost without the righteous book as my guide - I want to apologize if I am straying from it's teachings, but it is hard to do so without the book by my side as a guide, and I pray and plead that you can forgive me for this. But I want to ask one thing - what do you think I should do now - I know it's bad for everyone, even Chatot, ultimately, for me to take this lying down, but I am not sure how to solve things now - the guild are already on their way to the lake, and it's not like I can ask for a fair judgement now, so please, give me some guidance, righteous one..." I said, and lay down on the bed - it was as uncomfortable as usual. I looked at the empty bed, where Serge would usually be.

I hoped that he was thorough good time on the expedition so far. Huh, I was just as capable as him overall, and probably more capable than Bidoof and Diglett. Damn fucking right did I have what it takes to go there, and then...of course! Why the fuck should I even be here - ah, who gives a shit what Chatot said - if I am capable of going, then I will go! Dialga has guided me well here - Dialgans like myself believe that if someone wrongs you, you should wrong them back, but make sure it's not as bad as what they done to you, thus teaching them a lesson while retaining the moral high ground - yes, that's what it would be! The Kecleon Shop is usually open twenty-four-seven, I should be able to get what I need, and hopefully reach the base camp tomorrow evening - I knew exactly where it was due to be, looking at my map - the exploring of fogbound lake wouldn't start until the day after, and it's not like they would send me back. My resolve returned as I marched out of my room, and into the hall, when I saw...

"Corphish?! Are you...getting out of here?!" I said to a shifty looking Corphish, with a full bag on his back.

"I'm going on the expedition, screw what Chatot says!" Corphish said. "I don't want to be left and be the laughing stock of the guild when they return!" He continued to rant, and I agreed with him.

"Great minds think alike - I had exactly the same intentions - we should be able to get to base camp by tomorrow evening if we don't get delayed en route too much" I said, but out loud chatter must have woke up Chimeco. She had been in the guild for several years, and was unofficially put in charge of the guild while the expedition was on.

"You two...why are you awake?" She asked. I doubt we could lie about it, so I straight up told her the truth - honesty was seen as a very important virtue in the eyes of a Dialgan, though thinking this made me feel guilty for all the times I abused the loophole.

"We are going on the expedition - we're just as, if not more capable than some who got picked." I said bluntly. "And it's not like they'd send us back, after all - I mean, I can't imagine them stooping that low." Her eyes widened in surprise, and said...

"...Bloody good idea, I'm going with you - I'll lock up the guild!" She said. I guess this would start this dis-allowed adventure I was going on. Could I have made it there alone? To be honest I doubted that, but I had two good friends and efficient explorers with me - my hopes for finding Uxie were certainly not gone, and were now stronger than ever. I was bound to at least make it to the main camp site. Grins spread across all our faces, as we head out of the guild building, and we turned to one another.

"Hey hey, this is more thrilling than expected - I mean, we're breaking the guild rules at the same time, and for some reason, it just makes things more exciting, hey!" Corphish said enthusiastically.

"I wonder how they'll react to us showing up?" Chimeco asked.

"Oh, I don't think they'll be too happy, but it doesn't matter." I said, smiling broadly "I know this will look really cheesy right now, but I have to let it out of my system." I said, spun around on the spot, until I was facing the direction of where the main camp would be, just past a series of mountains, and pointed.

"To fogbound lake!"


	7. The Illegal Adventure

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 7: The Illegal Adventure

I didn't give two shits about what Chatot and Wigglytuff decided about who goes and who gets left behind – I'm going on the expedition whether they like it or not! For me, the expedition meant damn-near everything - though for a very different reason from everyone else. They were after the excitement and glory of hoping to find a hidden place, yet to be confirmed to even exist, and the treasure, wealth, and riches that might be found there. As for me - it was for a very different reason - the rumours say that a pokemon known as Uxie lives in and around the like, and has the power to wipe memories.

He, according to the false religion of Arceism, is known as the being of knowledge. But perhaps they're right - perhaps this pokemon knows all, and, due to the fact that I must have got some sort of amnesia, would it be too much to assume that he had something to do with it. The answers had to lie with him - the answers to exactly what happened to me, and how to get back to my own world, where my friends, family, and humanity's creature comforts were. But there was getting there first of all - fortunately, the other two who were rejected were also refusing to stay at the guild. Corphish and Chimeco were also pissed about not being allowed to go. But we didn't care if we weren't allowed - we were going!

"Gah, we'll just wake the Kecleon brothers - as long as they receive cash, they'd do anything." Corphish said. "Hey hey, I bet they'd even screw the other one over to get a mere grand!"

"They would never do that!" Chimeco said hotly. "They're very nice people, and they're not that money hungry...as money hungry as they are...look, they clearly very close to each other!" She said, sounding somewhat uncertain as we approached their shop, and Corphish knocked loudly on the door.

"We've come to buy supplies!" He said loudly. There was shuffling and grumbling from inside, and it sounds like the two of them were talking.

"You get it...I was up until half twelve last night sorting stock..." One of them said. More shuffling and footsteps, and out from the door came a very tired looking purple-red kecleon.

"Ok...I'll serve you...just give me a moment..." He said, staggering a bit from the tiredness as he went to the counter. "So, what will it be - please, do make it quick, I'm gagging for sleep..." He said, struggling to stay awake. I didn't have much of an idea of what I would have - this made me fee like a novice and a half.

"I'll let you two judge what we need for all three of us, and I'll chip in a third of what it comes to." I said, taking a step back from the counter. Corphish nodded..

"Granted, you have only been doing this for a month, and have never been on explorations that last a few hours. Hey hey! Pay attention when we order - as a more experienced explorer, I feel as though I should be showing you how it's done." He said, in a rather cocky tone. Chimeco wasn't too impressed.

"Now now, he's perfectly capable!" Chimeco said, and then looked round at the Kecleon, who was half asleep. "Oh, sorry, we'll buy things now..." She said, and started naming things in rather large quantities, Corphish protesting at the occasional item, but complained a lot more about the quantity, and I don't blame him too much - this would cost quite a pretty penny. Fifteen Oran berries?! We would surely be fine with just three each.

"Now, I'm not taking any chances, and you will pay your third of the deal whether you like it or not!" She said sternly to Corphish. I ended up having to pay three thousand - almost half of Team Conviction's current funds. As slimy as that may have seemed, I deemed it a necessity - Serge would understand. I found myself with a backpack, utterly filled to the brim with supplies, including food and water-skins to last me the journey. I didn't really think that I'd need the oran berries under most circumstances, but they do make you feel more awake - I had only been awake for a total of 15 hours, and I'd probably be up for at least another twenty before reaching our destination. It would be a very long trip, and in order to catch up, we couldn't afford to rest.

"OK guys, now I trust you know the landscape a lot better than I do - I know where we're going, but I don't know the ideal route..." I said. "I mean, I'm guessing it will take almost a whole day, but..."

"Well, my good friend, I would suggest we cut right through the mountains." Corphish said suddenly, but Chimeco looked like she was about to protest.

"We'd be slowed down too much!" She said hotly. "If we go around them, it'll be flat, easy going all the way - that's the way the guild took." Corphish waved his claws in front of her, clearly trying to get her full attention - either that, or he was getting flustered.

"Hey hey, use your brain, woman! If we go around the long way, the expedition would have already led them away from the main camp site by the time we get there!" He said, looking sternly at her, and took his map out. "It's simple! We walk right over here by the river - flat, easy going, and very few aggressive pokemon - we probably won't bump into any." he said, stroking his closed claw along the map, 'drawing out' where they would go. "Then, we go by the cliff-side coast - saves us having to walk around the huge lake, that would probably cost us almost three hours." Chimeco interrupted again

"The craggy coast? You sure? I mean, not many people go there - it's not reported to be too dangerous, but there havn't been to many reports about how dangerous the place is - are you sure?" She said, and to be honest, I wasn't too comfortable with the idea of going through some fairly unexplored territory for a mere short cut.

"Do you want to make it there in time or not? Thought so." Corphish said brashly. "Now, after we go past there, which means it should be about midday, if we move quickly, we have the mountain's to pass through - now, going between them would take too long - we would be zigzagging through them for, I dunno, almost a whole day - so I say we just go for it - right over Mount Horn." Chimeco seemed to vibrate as she hovered in the air with disapproval.

"Mount Horn?! What are you trying to prove! Haven't you heard it's heavily populated with Aerodactyl, who probably think we, or maybe just you two, or perhaps even just you, Corphish, would make a good meal?! I don't know about you, but I know the risks – many explorers have died while exploring, and I am NOT going to join them in death!" She said, looking revolted at the mere suggestion, and she wasn't the only one who looked frustrated, and Corphish started to retaliate.

"You went deep into the amp plains to rescue some growlithe who was taken by some group of savage luxray, who intended to kill and eat him brutally - and you did that alone! Really, I'm sure if you did that then going up and over Mount Horn should be nothing, especially when we've got your back, right Floyd?" He said, shifting his eyes to look at me, without moving his body at all. I nodded slightly - I honestly had no idea what they were on about, but it seemed like the decision was settled - walk by the wide river to the coast, walk by the cliffs, and over Mount Horn.

It seemed fairly straight forward in terms of navigation, but, well, I knew it was going to be dangerous - I didn't like the idea of being aerodactyl food myself, but it wasn't like it was the first time I was risking my life. I was a trained explorer, and while I could defend myself fairly well, this was different. Serge wasn't here this time...and boy, I missed him. He could have lit the way clearly from walking by the river bank! I kept stepping in muddy patches, which irritated the fuck out of me.

"Aw for fuck's sake!" I said loudly when I stepped in the mud for about the seventeenth time that hour. Indeed, Corphish was right - there wasn't any real threats here, but walking like this in the dark wasn't really my thing at all. Not that I was scared of the dark, but I was always concerned about bumping into, or stepping on things that I didn't want to step on - it took me back to my childhood - I remembered yelping in pain whenever I accidentally stood on a toy I left in the room when I would wake up and step on it on the way to turning on the light. It reminded me of my human life once again, and I realised what was at stake - I had no time to worry about petty little things such as getting my feet dirty. I looked ahead into the darkness, following the sound of the flowing river as my guide. Chimeco yawned from behind.

"Ugh...I'm tired, I'll get an oran berry..." She said, taking one out of her bag via telekinesis. As for myself, I was, oddly enough, feeling sleepy as well. Back in my human life, I was a complete and utter late night addict, staying up to on average, four o'clock in the morning, but all this guild work strangled the light night addiction right out of me. I could use a nice cosy bed right now...but an oran berry for myself would have to do. I ate one of mine, and slowly started feeling more awake as we continued to trudge by the river. The strange thing was, that the berry seemed to fill me with a feeling of true energy, rather than an an artificial-like burst of energy, much like monster energy gave me. It was a very satisfying feeling, I had to admit. However, I was feeling hungry, suddenly - the sun's absence seemed to make me feel more droopy than normal, as my hunger for sunlight seemed to convert into hunger for more food than normal. I immediately got a sandwich out of my bag - very slightly squashed, but it was certainly edible.

"You eating already? Jeez, I'm surprised you're not fat if you eat that much." Corphish said - evidently, out eyes were getting used to the night now - I was about ten meters away, and he could see what I was doing.

"Well" I said, my mouth stuffed full with the sandwich, so it was almost impossible to understand me "Some species of grass pokemon, such as myself get energy from sunlight - if there is no sun out, we need to stuff our faces - ever noticed that during most days I only need one meal a day? It's called photosynthesis - learn about it." I said while swallowing what I had chewed in my mouth - I'm not sure if he understood a word I said, but I wasn't really too bothered.

There was only the very occasional breath of wind now and then - and it seemed to smell salty - we must be close to the coast by now. The river had become so slow, that you couldn't hear it flowing at all, and the trees to our right had started growing sparse. It was still very dark however, even though we had been walking for almost five hours straight with no real break - I guess, I realised how fit all this exploration had made me - I was no couch potato as a human, but my legs didn't feel remotely sore, even while carrying a rather heavy bag. I guess this incredibly high-active job was doing a lot of favours for my health and fitness, minus the injuries I received while doing so if course. Too bad I can't make any insurance claims in this world.

"Hey, Floyd." Chimeco said from behind me "What was your place like? Y'know, before you moved to Treasure Town." I hoped to the high heavens I wouldn't be asked this again, and like a politician, I tried dodging the question.

"Now that question gets boring from time to time, you tell me about where you came from?" I said calmly - and it worked!

"Me? I came from slightly further afield than the others - I actually lived closer to Chaud Town than treasure town, almost right in the middle of the continent. A very peaceful little village, it was, and to be honest, it was too peaceful for my liking - like most of the others who come here, I came to the guild because I craved adventure. I wanted to come when the guild was first set up, but I had to wait for a few years."

"My parents were appalled by the idea of doing such a dangerous job, so I had to wait until I was old enough to be allowed to leave – twenty one years of age, I had to wait to - like I said the village - way too peaceful - it's like being wrapped in cotton wool when you live there. I calmed down after the first couple of years of pure exploring - I found greater and safer work being the guild chef for a lot of the time, but I still do manage the occasional exploration." I personally found this all very interesting - these pokemon - they weren't very different at all from humans - why, all these stories sounded like people joining the military, and then it really dawned on me - why I didn't think of it earlier, I did not know.

"Say...why are people not called by their birth names here? Seems a bit impersonal since we've known each other for a few weeks now." I asked, and both Corphish and Chimeco looked very surprised to hear me ask that "I mean, I'm calling you by your species or race or whatever, and it seems outright rude to me now."

"Well, I come from very near Treasure Town...having names is seen as inefficient in these parts - Treasure Town, as you may have guessed, is very much revolved around exploration, and it's just far easier if we call each other by our species in these parts - saves having to learn names. I was never even given one." Corphish explained, but I still wasn't too happy about this. In fact, I thought this was disgraceful, but he didn't look remotely sad about it.

"Even for the non explorers who work around Treasure Town – never referred by names – we decided not to push it on visitors from far away such as yourself - those from the other side of the continent tend to follow suit as well, but you get the off person who insists on being called by their birth name, such as Serge." Corphish said "I mean, you're obviously from way across the sea, different culture and stuff. Don't see how it's rude calling you 'Snivy' but hey, I know nothing about where you're from." I shook my head at this.

"Yes, I was given a name at birth, I would much rather I was called that." I said, before eating my second oran berry. The sky no longer seemed pitch black anymore - morning was clearly on it's way, and in spite of all this walking, I had plenty of energy left in me to fight, should we encounter aggressive pokemon through the day.

"Right on schedule! Get the map, Floyd." I quickly got it out of my bag, and Corphish took it from me and pointed ."We should be about here - now, we need to turn in this direction - we're taking a cliff side walk here, and in theory, we should reach the base of mount horn by midday. well, if you two aren't exhausted, which you shouldn't be, lets go right away!" He said, walking towards the cliff side. He really did think he was in charge, but he was more experienced than me - he got us this far, and well, I trusted his judgement. I looked at the dull red on the brim of the horizon - looked very pretty by the mouth of the river, and inspired hope. I did wonder, however - was that even the sun at all?! Must be some other star, but it didn't matter - it served the same purpose - it gave light to us all, and energy to plants - I guess you could say I counted as a half-plant - and thus provided food for everything else.

"Coming, Floyd?" Chimeco said. I turned my head and nodded. Indeed, Corphish was definitely asserting himself as leader now, but to be honest, he seemed like he was in his element here - the sea spray was irritating, especially with the sudden gusts of wind that now accompanied the morning sun. The leaf on my head and tail seemed to automatically face the sun, clearly trying to absorb as much sunlight as possible. The cliff sides were dull, drab and wet from the sea spray, and from the occasional splashes of water from rough waves during high tides. The general connotations of the dubbed 'craggy coast' never had positive connotations to me, but this place just felt uncomfortable to be in. One sea spray came in the form of an oddly violent gust, which seemed to shake up Chimeco by quite a bit.

"You know, Corphish, you could have picked a route that would be good for us as well - I mean, I know you don't mind the sea spray, but you really should have thought of us as well!" She complained.

"Hey hey, quit yer moaning already! I said I'd take us through the most efficient, quickest route."

"Oh, easy for you to say, considering you don't mind all this damn sea spray!" She vented. "Oh by the way, there's a krabby, about fifty meters ahead - doesn't look too dangerous, certainly not aggressive, it shouldn't..."

"Oh, I'll kick it's ass!" Corphish said an ran right at the krabby, with surprising speed. The krabby looked at him and looked shocked, as it immediately received what seemed like a rapid fire of pale bullets from his right claw, using it as if it were some kind of uzi or other rapid-fire firearm. It was helplessly knocked back as Corphish leaped in the air and crashed down with both claws and slammed them on the krabby's head. It didn't stand a chance, and was helplessly knocked cold. "Hell yea!" Corphish said and stood in a victory pose, but Chimeco wasn't impressed.

"Look, that wasn't necessary - he clearly wasn't a threat - we're explorers, not straight up fighters." Chimeco chastised with disapproval. "Yes, you're a good fighter, but please, restrain yourself unless we have to - I mean...that was brutal! And not in the good way."

"Sorry Corphish, but I'm siding with Chimeco here - unnecessary violence, really" I said, shaking my head in disapproval.

"Hippies...you always side with Chimeco, Floyd!" Corphish moaned back. They were good for direction and combat, or at least Corphish was. But putting up with their constant bitching...I could do without that. The sun continued to rise slowly as we trudged our way through the craggy coast, it's beams colliding weakly into us - I didn't feel much warmth with it over the blasted sea spray. The oran berry that I ate even felt salty to the taste - I had only two left now - it would have to do until at least Mount Horn.

I tried keeping my backpack away from the wind blowing in from the see to try and stop the spray from dampening my bag. I felt hungry for more sandwiches, but if they were going to be contaminated with salt when I brought them out of the bag...It could wait, I guess. This was a lot harder going than before, having to step on and around sharp rock - oh, it was fine for Chimeco and Corphish, who could levitate or had tough skin respectively. I missed my shoes dearly as I carefully stepped around the rougher rocks - I had no protection against getting my feet cut to pieces, but I had learned throughout my explorations to avoid this well - the soles of my feet had become fairly tough as a result of all the barefoot walking.

"Stop being so slow, Floyd!" Chimeco said and giggled slightly - easy for her hovering over everything. Two wingull flew overhead, screeching audibly – irritating, yet a nice change from Corphish's whining and bragging. More sharp rocks, more sea spray, mounting hunger, more unpleasant sound coming from many sources...I really hated this shitty place. I took a swig from one of my water skins, being careful to minimize the amount of salt that went in my mouth, and then I saw a couple of spheals rolling about twenty meters to the side of me - such funny creatures - they always amused me when David Attenbourgh briefly featured them on their rolling behaviours. Never remembered why the did that though - easier ground movement, perhaps? Not that it mattered too much right now. A sealeo accompanied them - must be their big brother - an angry big brother at that. He didn't look remotely pleased to see us.

"Corphish, compose yourself..." I said in a quiet murmur to him. He looked like he was spoiling for yet another fight, as did the sealeo, and even the pair of spheal looked potentially hostile. "OK, we just go a way around them, we can avoid this." I said quietly again, nudging Corphish the direction I suggested to him. He didn't budge though, and had both claws at the ready. I sighed, seeing that we wouldn't be getting out of this with at least some severe exertment at best.

"Floyd, if there was one thing I learned throughout my exploration experiences...never let any threats strike first!" He said, open both claws and shot two streams of the strange bullet-like...bubbles at both spheals, and charged forward with a fairly young, but vicious battle-cry.

"Wait, wh...we'd better help him Floyd." Chimeco said, and yet, she stayed back. I never at all thought she would be a physical fighter for a split second, but I was curious to know what she was thinking. I, however, looked right at the sealeo, and ran towards it at an odd angle, to make sure that both me and Corphish couldn't get hit by the same attack. I would be fine, but the sealeo roared in anger at it's two little brothers - if they were brothers - getting injured, and a strange clear light seemed to form in it's mouth very quickly. Corphish suddenly slowed down and became more cautious, but no amount of caution would have saved him from a very fast and dangerous pale blue beam fired from it's mouth. Even though I was a few meters away from it, I felt a sudden chill in the air from it, as if the beam itself carried no warmth or mercy. And yet, Corphish did not receive any injury from it - he didn't even look like he was hit!

"I got you covered - now get to it!" Chimeco said loudly at us, and we promptly went in hard and fast with our attacks. I leaped high in the air and fell down hard with leaf blade with no restraint, cutting it's think fat fairly deep. Corphish however, was a far more relentless attacker, and kept hammering it's head, making use of his large claws as blunt instruments of pain. It roared in pain as it couldn't get up due to our attacks. Now, this would have all been fairly simple, but we were both suddenly knocked hard from different sides and sent reeling across the ground, and I felt my own skin being grazed. The spheals seemed like capable fighters, and were not about to let their brother go down. Corphish got up almost immediately.

"Ow...can be painful if they get a lot of room to do that, but I'm not about to let a couple of stupid spheals get the better of me!" He said, and I watched him use his claws to hit a rolling spheal, as if he was playing baseball - I had to give him credit - he was a lot stronger than he looked. My shoulders felt...very, very odd. I held them - I hoped to the high heavens I didn't dislocate them when I got knocked hard onto the ground. What I felt was...well...not what I expected. Ok, I confess , it was really freaking me out – there was movement from inside my shoulder!

"AAH! Oh shit, oh FUCK!" I said, staring at each shoulder alternately as I held them both tightly. Chimeco took her eyes off the fight for a second.

"What, what?!" She said looking at me. "Take your hands off, I'll take a look, I'm good at identifying and helping stave off minor injuries quickly" I nodded, still in a panic and wrenched by hands away from my shoulders. I could still feel movement from inside my shoulders, which seemed to be pushing their way to the surface. It felt sickening - it felt like there was something that was living inside me, and was trying to break free, like a parasite that had been growing inside me, and that I was it's host and it was now it's time to break free of it's shell - me. I felt something push through smoothly out of my shoulders - it wasn't painful, but it just felt so very, very unnatural and bizarre. And then...Chimeco chuckled.

"Hehe, you've never once made use of your vines before? Quite a few pokemon can use those – pretty late to discover them, no?" She said to me, clearly seeing that my panic was over nothing. I looked - two vine ends were indeed poking out of my shoulder. I knew that some pokemon that had some plant properties had these for self defence and preservation - I was a big fan of David Attenbourgh, so I did see myself as reasonably knowledgeable on this sort of thing, receiving regular injections of trivial knowledge from his TV series.

Trivial knowledge that had become very useful in this world, which seemed to follow the same natural laws as the world I was used to. A blessing that I should indeed count. I tried to feel for the control in the vines that were poking out of my shoulders, and after a few seconds of mind-screwing myself, I managed to get them back in. Useful for combat and self defence? They probably were, but I had no time to try and figure out how to use them - I saw Chimeco struggling to protect Corphish with psychic barriers from the constant attacks of our assailants. I eventually pushed myself onto my feet, and surveyed the scene

"Corphish, I really think you should have waited for Floyd!" Chimeco said, looking mentally strained from trying to block attacks aimed at Corphish using some form of telekinesis. I stood back - they all seemed close together now - I could cut them all with one razor leaf swing. Indeed, it seemed like the best course of action. Now, if only Corphish would get out of the way.

"Corphish, move your ass to the side, will you?!" I said loudly, winding up for a powerful volley of highly sharp leaves. This one would be delivered from my tail leaf rather than my head one, forgoing accuracy for raw power.

"I'm doing good, don't worry - I can hang in here!" Corphish yelled, who had just jumped up at the sealeo and clamped one of his claws in it's fatty skin, and was attacking with the other claw. The sea spray clouded my concentration - I had to unleash the attack now, or I'd lose all focus.

"Aw for fuck sake, Chimeco, get him out of there - that spheal's going to do something to Corphish!" I yelled, but Chimeco was evidently having splitting headaches from all the strain of protecting Corphish.

"After this, I need a rest!" She said, her eyes narrower than normal, and floated swiftly over to Corphish, wrapped her tassel around him and mysteriously vanished. I had no time to question where, as I swung my whole body round, swinging my tail once, and viciously let out a fairly small, but dangerous group of razor sharp leaves that delivered a many fairly deep cuts on those foolish pokemon who decided to attack us, and a vicious scream to accompany the release of such an attack.

"Huh, maybe your attacks aren't as flimsy after all - not bad for a foreigner!" It was Corphish for sure, who must have been teleported right behind my by Chimeco. I saw one of the spheals go down, clearly no longer up for fighting, and even the sealeo looked like he was on his last legs. It let out another roar, which seemed to be one of fear instead of anger or aggression.

"Hey hey, just kidding, you done good Floyd - but I'm finishing this off." he said and raised his claws in the air, and once again jumped forward and slammed the both on the sealeo. it was too weak to resist the attack and fell forward on the ground unconscious. "Oh...yeah!" Corphish said in triumph. This felt like an achievement for this little group, and I even clapped a few times.

"Ok, can we just move on now before they wake up?" I said impatiently - I didn't fancy the idea of them taking vengeance on us at all. I had barely noticed, but mist seemed to be shrouding the place ever so slightly, giving a more mysterious feel to the coast - to be honest, I found it a somewhat pleasant distraction to the sea spray. We had barely took a few steps before we could see a large shape in front of us - and it was moving. Moving towards us.

"Look, can we just rest for ten minutes until my headache subsides?" Chimeco said from behind who was resting on a rock.

"Shh...there's something there, and I don't like it" I said hastily, staring at it. The spheal which I missed, suddenly rolled into the mist towards it - or, at least in it's general direction - probably just fleeing from us. If only that were that little story over, but fate decided to make us do an encore. I heard a loud animistic moan that chilled the blood in my veins as I saw it lumber towards us. I could barely make it out, but it seems like Corphish had already identified it.

"I...think it's their daddy...and he's pissed! Sorry Chimeco, no breaks here!" It was obvious now that he mentioned it - a walrien, and I nearly shit myself. It bellowed in anger, and I felt a chilling breeze gently blow in it's direction. the temperature seemed to drop as it approached us. Corphish couldn't take it anymore and immediately charged at it, rather skilfully dodged it's tusks to clamp onto the walrien with great force. And yet, it didn't seem to have much effect on it, and tried to shake him off, but Corphish was stubborn, and continued the assault. Whacking him with his other claw, however, was almost useless against it's extremely think and resilient hide. Corphish was trying every trick he knew in the book, but none were working very well. He eventually lost his grip and came scuttling back to us to avoid a rage-driven counter-attack.

"I can't do a thing against it! Everything I know, and he doesn't seem to be too badly injured from it all!" He said, waving his claws in panic, his confidence clearly ripped out of him. "Do something Floyd!" He said as I saw it continue to move forward to us fairly slowly but surely, with no apparent way to stop it from it closing in on us like a zombie with no way to kill it. I immediately swing round and used razor leaf with all my might - not like such a slow target could dodge it, so I could afford to aim and prepare. I looked round and saw some narrow cuts in it, but did I really come close to stopping it? No.

"OK, I'll try a physical attack, I get way more force that way." I said, looked it right in the eye - and finally, the walrien did something. It opened it's mouth wide - and I knew fine well what it was about to do, remembering the sealeo from earlier.

"Out of the WAY!" I yelled and we all dived in different direction to avoid a threatening beam of ice. It narrowly passed me, and the deathly chill that I felt from it gave me a true indication of how dangerous this pokemon really was. And it didn't stop there - the beam still continued to fire as he rotated his head to aim at Corphish who just jumped out of the way, but there was no avoiding it this time, and he was hit square on. I saw and heard him yell in pain, but it soon faded quickly as I swore I could even see his body temperature reduce. It was incredibly fortunate that the walrien could no longer use ice beam, and needed to recharge.

"Distract him Floyd! I'll help Corphish!" Chimeco said, as she tried to bring about Corphish and warm him up so that he could fight again. I had no choice really. I annoyed it purposefully with a weaker leaf blade from my head lead, and it bellowed in anger at me, and tried another ice beam attack, but I dodged it's primitive, yet very powerful attack with ease.

That was the key advantage we had over these wild, uncivilized pokemon – we could think and plan. But even primitive animals had very basic degrees of problem solving abilities, and this walrien was no exception. It stopped wasting it's time with ice beam, and, I don't know how it did this, but it seemed to inhale, and lifted it's head - ice-cold wind seemed to be summoned from behind it, and enveloped me in a chilling gale. My body did not take it well at all - I had to react fast, or my body would become stiff with the cold. I looked right behind me - I could hide for now, and I dashed behind a large boulder to shelter from the icy wind.

"Can't we just run?!" I yelled to the other two. "Our attacks were almost useless against it! We're going to tire from exhaustion and the cold before it goes down."

"Screw that..." Corphish said, getting up. "Quit being a pussy, and let's all get in and kick his ass! We just need to all attack it at once, that should do it!" Rolling my eyes, I saw that I didn't have much choice in the matter.

"That's just to primitive - we need an actual plan - what havn't we tried yet...?" Chimeco said "Surely there's something we havn't thought of yet."

"Well, I havn't tried using my vines, but that'll be useless...or absorb...OK, I think I might have an idea, if running away is that much of an issue to Corphish's petty pride" I said, looking out from behind the rock. The walrien was still moving towards us, having no intentions of stopping

"No, it's simple, I blast them with bubbles – rock hard ones, honest! You blast them with leaves, and Chimeco...just do what you do, OK?" Corphish said, and it was then I kind of snapped under the stress here.

"Oh, shut the fuck up and let me explain!" I said, and inhaled "Ok...I jump on it's back and I latch onto it and drain it's energy - I keep that up, and it should start to tire out eventually, and hopefully I won't freeze."

"That'll take ages, though!" Corphish protested, but I arrogantly held up my hand to silence him.

"The idea was, that it might soften him up slightly for attacks - Chimeco, you're going to have to be more offensive here - it's thick flab won't provide any protection against some of your psychic powers, no?" I said to Chimeco, who looked like she had a eureka moment.

"Oh course! God, I should have thought of that earlier!" She said.

"Either way, the essence of the plan is to exhaust him - Corphish, while bubble blast or whatever you like to call it won't do much at all, try to use it to knock him off balance." Even Corphish now looked like he was happy to go along with my ideas as I tried not to snigger at the thought of him admitting that those blue pellet things were bubbles. More power to him though if he gets them to fashion them like bullets!

"OK, I'm going in now." I said, and climbed into of the rock, and jumped over the ice beam that was fired at me, and landed on the walrien's back latched on, and started draining it's strength. "Go, now!" I said, signalling the others to come in while I continued to absorb it's energy. The pair of them wasted no time, and I saw Chimeco's eyes glow oddly, and suddenly the walrien writhed in pain from the searing headache that Chimeco caused.

Corphish didn't waste any time either, and took advantage of it's pain and shot it's head rapidly, but it didn't do much, and it's balance wasn't toppled remotely. I could see and even feel the walrien prepare an ice beam, but I could tell it was still disorientated - I wasn't going to take any chances though, and right before it fired it, I swiped the back of it's neck hard with the leaf on my head, suddenly causing it's head to tilt back in pain, and fired the beam right into the sky, and then, Corphish finally did something intelligent - he fired those rock-hard bubbles right into it's open mouth, and this most certainly hurt it. It roared in pain once again, and it looked like it was finally starting to give way - I didn't stop draining it of energy. It didn't have the energy to shake me off anymore, as it's attempts to do so came to naught, as I clinged on like a leech, sucking blood from it's host.

"Hey hey! I'm going to finish..." Corphish said, but was cut short by Chimeco, who just blasted it with psybeam, finally causing it to topple on it's side. I jumped off to avoid being squashed underneath it, and looked at it - it looked exhausted and in pain - it wasn't going to bother fighting us anymore - we had beaten it. I sighed in relief, staggering a bit.

"God, fucking, damn it...come on guys, let's go go go!" I smiled, as not only did all this energy make somewhat hyper, I realised I successfully lead us to victory – I was getting good at this! "Oh, boy, I'm gonna race you fuckers to the base of mount horn, see you there!" I said as I started running there - I could see the base in the distance, and I tilted the leaves towards the sun to absorb sunlight, giving me even more energy. I had to stop doing this as often, or I would become an addict to this.

"Wait up!" The others said from behind me, but I wasn't going to wait up - they'd find a way to catch me up, and the pressure of being left behind, I'm sure they wouldn't be left behind. The sea spray even started to fade as we branched away from the coast and into the mountains. The expedition would see us soon - who knows - we might even just beat them there. Providing the terrors in the mountain don't slow us down to much, but right now, I felt that nothing that Mount Horn possessed could possibly stop us at all.

"It's really good that I was here, wasn't I?" I said, grinning at them. "Else, you might have had to go home, or be at that fat bastard's mercy."

"Floyd...Ok, I admit, I don't think we could have done it without you."

"Of course Corphish! One does not simply replace Floyd Munro!" I said, thinking back to my human life for a moment. Nope, I couldn't be replaced there either, not even in The Leviathan Is Dead – my skills and expertise for the band were surely vital to any shows we put on. The void that would no doubt be in their lives needed to be filled once again. Sure, I might leave a small void in the guild, which I really should be doing, but hey, sacrifices have to be made, right?


	8. Looking Into The Sky

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 8: Looking Into The Sky

What could I say? This forbidden trip to join the others was going swimmingly so far. Traversing the craggy coast went well, in spite of the conditions and aggressive pokemon thrown at us - oh boy, was it pleasant to get away from those harsh conditions! Corphish and Chimeco seemed to start having more faith in my judgements, but this to me was a double edged sword I didn't feel too comfortable with. Yes, I could direct them to do what I wanted them to do easier, such as choosing how we get up and over Mount Horn, or better yet, get them to go around, should it be easier or quicker. However, if I make a bad decision, I could cause serious harm and although the fate of those two weren't exactly of much consequence to me, it was pretty much my duty to try and help them through this, since they were helping me out as well. It felt strange, having this increased responsibility on my shoulders, and considering I had very little knowledge of the land around these parts compared to the other two...I'd still have my work cut out for myself. Still, I felt good, soaking up the blessed light of the sun. The other two quickly caught up with me as we stood at the base of an impressive looking mountain.

"...I assume this is the Mount Horn that you referring to...and you're sure that it isn't best to go around it?" I asked Corphish, looking at the mountain with my pair of inspecting eyes.

"Can't you see Floyd? Look how the mountain is shaped - going right of it is impossible, or we'd end up in the sea, since you can see that it's peak actually forms a very high cliff side, hence it's name, Mount Horn." He explained.

"OK then, can we go left? We should really try to avoid that nasty looking climb of possible." I asked, questioning his odd suggestion.

"No, Floyd - see to the left, at those incredibly dense forest? It's known as Oblivion Forest - why? Because more people that go in there never return than make it out alive – it doesn't have the obviously ominous name for no reason. Like I said, I planned the route - the climb won't be easy, oh hell no, but it's pretty much the only way that we could make it to the base camp before they all start the expedition."

I took a look at this oblivion forest - while still about a kilometre in the distance...well, it might have been less, judging distance was quite a bit harder when you suddenly become between a third and a quarter of the size that you usually are, but it mattered not - I could see the jagged, uninviting tree branches, which seemed to scream at me 'DO NOT COME IN HERE!'

I could just imagine what was hiding in there - all sorts of deadly pokemon, all stronger and more vicious than their counterparts in the other parts of the world from the constant fighting with one another, the ecosystem there up-chucking some real monstrosities. Or perhaps my imagination was running wild - either way, the peak of Mount Horn looked a lot more inviting in comparison. It wasn't all that jagged and danger ridden, by the looks of it, at least...I mean, it didn't look much more dangerous or discomforting as the coast, anyway.

"Alrighty then, we go straight up the mountain then - looks like it may take quite a few hours to get up there." I said and started moving forward. There was no point in wasting time - we might as well just get over with - the sooner the better. I hated to imagine what could come out during the the twilight hours on Mount Horn.

I immediately marched swiftly towards the mountain and started the ascent. It didn't seem that tall a mountain, but boy was it steep. It would be a harsh climb say the least. I hastily guided the others to walk with me, while trying to master my shoulder-vines. It was no doubt, very difficult, like trying to operate a different set of limbs. It was indeed difficult while trying to do so while walking, but I had no choice but to try my best. I heard a chuckle from behind me, no doubt from Chimeco.

"This is a lot harder than it looks - I mean, you have no limbs at all you have to control, imagine having...well...six? Kind of..." I said, as I pulled my vines back into my shoulders without using my hands. I guess I could try using them later when we get a rest – pretty much every feature of a living being was important to it's survival, at least in theory, though Arceus must have been extremely high designing some lifeforms, so I couldn't be sure. Not that it would matter too much, as Uxie had to have the answers and be the way home. During my deep thinking about the possible results and consequences of this scenario, Corphish suddenly spoke.

"OK guys, I'm hungry." He said and started getting some food out of his bag. "Can we stop for ten minutes?"

"This coming from the guy who seemed to be in a big hurry, but yea, I agree - I could use a sandwich..." I said and sat down and started eating it. I can honestly say, that the human world sandwiches were better. This seemed almost artificial in comparison, but I remembered something I forced to teach myself during my brief time in the cadets when I went away on a two week camp when I was fifteen years old - food can taste good, but it's primary purpose is to fuel you with energy.

Keeping this in mind, the sandwich wasn't all that plain and soulless, even for a person who secretly was quite a fan on fine dining. Corphish had already finished eating, and before he could tell us to hurry up, I shot a look at him that was to give him the message of 'You be patient...I mean it' I always hated being interrupted while eating.

"...Think there's even a chance they'll send us back?" Chimeco said, sounding slightly concerned, to which Corphish scoffed at.

"Look, I'm sure even right now, they're regretting the decision of telling us that we can't go. I mean, if we can't be trusted to be along side the guildmaster and the bastard Chatot, then why on earth would they trust us to look after the guild while they were away? It's retarded beyond belief. Also, I'm sure we're better explorers than Bidoof - I mean, he tries his damn best and is improving, but he's not really that capable, Diglett, who is only thirteen years old - probably only got picked from his dad pulling a few strings and quite possibly Croagunk - barely ever see him do any exploration jobs anyway."

"Well, Chimeco is in the sort of same boat and she's very capable. And besides, what would be the point of sending us back anyway after we had proved ourselves by taking quite a dangerous route, at least so far." I was reminded here by a movie that told me that someone who is brave doesn't go looking for trouble, unless they are stupid, and I would have never gone into such danger as a human. But had I become any braver? Probably not - when such men and woman are pushed in more dire situations, they can be shown what they can really do if they are pushed to what they normally encounter in day to day life. But this was day to day life now - and while it had it's moments, admittedly, I hated it with my body and mind.

After finishing my sandwich I got up and started heading up the mountain immediately, seeing that Chimeco had also finished. I crudely took a fairly large swig from my water-skin, which made me realise - this mountain didn't seem nearly as annoying as being blasted by the sea spray back at the craggy coast. There was hardly anything dangerous here so far - a few Shroomish past us, but they didn't bother paying any attention to us. And yet, I remembered one of them mentioning about Aerodactyls living here - I always imagined them living in a place like this long ago, but of course, they probably weren't extinct in this world. Well, they can't be too numerous - predators at the top of the food chain are never numerous in the ecosystem in which they live - it's the simple laws of nature. It wasn't that big a mountain, there couldn't be more than five, surely. not only that, I could see places to hide dotted on the mountain - a couple small dug out caves where we could hide if necessary.

The ground here was a lot more stable at that on Mount Bristle - we needn't have to worry about the occasional rock rolling at us at high speeds down the mountain side. However, it was still a tough climb non the less - saying it was steep didn't quite cut it, and sometimes, I had to use my hands to help pull me up. Now, it was physically demanding, don't get me wrong, but certainly within my capabilities, and it really showed how much fitter I became over the past month. Corphish, however, was no mountain climber.

"Help me up, would you?" He asked us, looking slightly embarrassed, and chuckled, clearly trying, but failing miserably to mask his embarrassment. Chimeco promptly responded by lifting him up with telekinesis and putting him on flatter ground.

"Don't ask me to do that too often." She said, without sounding frustrated.

"Yea yea, headaches and stuff." Corphish said. While it would normally have been seen as something of annoyance, Corphish's tone and body language was that of understanding. It was a lot steeper than most earth mountains at this altitude - well, it was probably more of a very large rock than a mountain - plant life was quite scarce here, and considering it wasn't too tall - well, it seemed quite tall, but taking into consideration my new reduced height, it couldn't have been more than about half a kilometre above sea level. For Chimeco, it was just a case of levitating up - lucky bitch. OK, time to follow her up...for this part, it would be solid rock climbing. I wasn't half bad as a human, but my shortened limbs would be crippling for sure, and my large nose kept on getting in the way, so any benefit I had from being more fit was pretty much negated.

"I swear this was easier when I was a...back...home." I said, sweating - couldn't let them know and lose all trust in me. Who would trust a raving lunatic who claimed he was seemingly legendary creature at one time? Not me, but there's no way on this planet I could prove it. I stretched up and continued climbing, but rather quickly got stuck. I could have asked Chimeco for help, but my pride completely stopped me - I had dignity and strength - I would get up there by myself. But I didn't know how, but upon my pondering, I got a very good idea - if I could get my vines to do as I wanted to...

"It's OK, I think I can manage." I called out, and brought the vines out of my shoulders - that was the easy part, and I started shifting my mind to find the muscle that could operate them. I felt my left hand start to slip and I made another grab for the mountain side and accidental slammed my body against it. It was mildly painful, as I bashed my right shoulder fairly badly. I had a better grip of the ledge, and managed to remove a hand to rub my shoulder, or at least the area where the arm joined the body, trying to deal with the pain. I could feel the rest of the vine inside. I also was sure I had found the muscle that might be able to control them. I tried to focus my mind on that muscle, and indeed, I could now feel myself extending the vine in my right shoulder, and then did the same to my left. It felt utterly bizarre, yet natural at the same time. I looked up the little cliff - perhaps I could use them to hold onto something up there. I extended them to the top.

"Chimeco, could you direct them to hold onto something." I said, and after a slight pause, she responded.

"We...move them to your left, and forward a bit - there's a large rock that you can hold onto, you're not heavy enough to move it so don't worry." I did as instructed and I felt the rock - clearly, the vines also had nerves running up them. Another strange feature of this plant-animal meta-crisis I had become. I held into it and used it to help haul myself up the ledge. They seemed quite strong - perhaps enough to even have uses in combat.

"I'd going to need help again." Corphish said, who didn't even make an attempt to climb up – it was way too steep for him.

"It'll be a massive mental strain on my brain but..." However, that would become the least of Chimeco's worries, let alone alone Corphish's, because at that exact moment, we saw a shadow at Corphish for a split second, and something large went right past him, and then he was seemingly gone.

"What the..." I said, peering over the edge, looking frantically around, and it didn't take long to see what made Corphish vanish from that spot. An aerodactyl no doubt, and it was just like I imagined them to be - fucking terrifying! Corphish yelled in panic, and I looked up in dismay, knowing that I couldn't do a thing to help. Chimeco on the other hand, kept her cool and used her head. While I watched the Aerodactyl fly off, it seemed to suddenly crash into something solid while in the air - and yet, I could not tell what it hard crashed into.

"...It's quite possibly one of my greatest defence techniques - sneaky, efficient, and, if you excuse my language, bloody hilarious!" Chimeco said, while I rushed over to the knocked out Aerodactyl and got Corphish free of it's tight grip.

"You're not hurt, are you?" I said, inspecting him. He didn't seem physically injured - merely shaken up. "Well, Chimeco, that was fantastic! We should head up the mountain quickly before that son of a bitch wakes up." We wasted no time in doing so, but we had barely made a move be heard a blood-chilling screech from behind - there was clearly more than one Aerodactyl who wanted us dead and eaten.

"Aw, fuck!" I said loudly, looking behind us, and it was already moving in fast. I turned my head back round and continued to run - that other aerodactyl wouldn't stay unconscious for long, and trying to fight two out in the open could bring about something very, very bad. Hiding seemed improbable, looking in all directions on the mountain face until lady luck shined on us, and I spotted a small cave dug in the side of the mountain - our pursuer might be able to fit in side, but he could be warded off at the bottleneck with Corphish's attacks. Yes, that seemed good.

"In that cave!" I yelled as I leaned forward and picked up speed and dived inside with Chimeco right beside me, her mind clearly highly strained. Corphish was a bit slower - I saw that he wasn't going to make it without some intervention. I looked a mere nose hair above Corphish's head. I would have to aim this well. Keeping my head as still as possible, I swing my tail leaf round with careful force, sending a small stream of sharp leaves - it was exactly what I was hoping. It caught the aerodactyl by surprise, and managed to get it to falter off it's flight direction, and bought Corphish just enough time to make it into the cave. It clearly saw it couldn't get us in here, and flew into the sky. We were safe...but stuck.

"Hey hey! I'm getting my ass saved right left and centre by you two, I'm getting a bit embarrassed!" Corphish said, and chuckled slightly. They seemed to be taking the current situation rather lightly, which I found odd, considering the danger that was facing, and is still facing us. "Well, shall we go deeper into the cave?" What a stupid idea, it'd just lead to a dead end.

"And you honestly think this cave is a tunnel through the mountains. It's just a dugout really, and it's incredibly dark. At least outside, you'll be able to see where you're going. I say we wait until they go away, and then make our move."

"How can you be so sure that they'll actually leave?" Corphish said, evidently thinking that his idea was better than mine. I was having none of that.

"Reality is buddy, they'll get tired and bored soon if we stay here"

"That could take for hours!" He protested, waving his claws.

"Well, here's the deal - you go deeper in that cave, you go without me." I said, folding my arms "You're choice buddy." I knew I had got him this time, as I saw Corphish's frustrated look, clearly not being able to think of a decent argument against what I had said. Chimeco looked like she was just going to go with the flow anyway. As someone of influence, I now learned that this was effective leadership - if someone is stubbornly protesting against you, simply refusing to go along with their ideas worked, especially if they need you – hardly always successful, but it's the best I had. Now, while I probably did need Corphish for protection, he didn't seem to realise that, or maybe he just didn't like the idea of going deep into the cave by himself, who knew. Corphish started walking to the edge cave, looking a bit frustrated.

"Not too close to the entrance!" I said rather loudly. At this moment, either Corphish fucked up, or we both did, for what I saw next is a clawed leg suddenly thrust it's leg inside and grabbed Corphish. If I never spoke so loudly...

"Shit!" I said, running after him and out of the cave, with Chimeco following suit. It got worse. The other aerodactyl who Chimeco knocked out earlier was conscience again and was coming at us for another shot. This all seemed to happen in half speed as I could see Chimeco about to protect the two of us with another barrier, but Corphish looked quite screwed. I didn't really think much of what I did next, and if I could see myself doing it, I would comment on the fact I was being stupid over brave. I looked right at the aerodactyl that was getting away with Corphish, and shot both my vines right him. I looked with my eyes straight between them, leaning forward with my teeth bared as I made them grab hold of the aerodactyl's right leg. I grabbed the vines with both my hands, and as I expected, I was immediately lifted off the ground. Well, it was too late to let go now, as I must have hung ten meters in the air and was rising still, bit that was tricky and painful - indeed I managed to hold on, but not without strain and pain. With the wind in my face and the pain of holding on with my fairly unused vines that needed exercised, it was hard to see where I was going when I looked ahead, but upon looking behind, Chimeco looked like she was defending herself well.

"Floyd?" I heard Corphish yell at me in surprise. It seems like my selfish nature had been shunted aside for the moment - as much as Corphish's fate would matter not to me after I get home to the human world, I couldn't just let him die, and I knew he might well do that if I just let him be carried off. The strain on my arms and shoulders toughened as I could see we were being taken to a small flat near the peak of the mountain. I was begging to doubt the aerodactyl knew that I had grabbed on, and as soon as it landed, I wasted no time. I immediately jumped up at it's face in surprise and wickedly slashed it across it's face, cutting into the very tough hide. I could hear it yell in as much surprise as it did in anger and pain. The shock of the attack was enough to allow Corphish to get free of it's grasp, of which he looked very grateful to be free from.

"...I didn't expect you to do something like that!" He said and started pummelling its head with blasts of large water pellets, not relenting in focus. I wasn't going to let the aerodactyl get an attack of some sort in at all, and as soon as Corphish's attack started to weaken, I swing round viciously with another attack, using my tail leaf almost like a battle-axe.

"Again, Corphish!" I advised and he followed up with another attack, as we kept forcing it back, adding more wounds to its now rather-battered body. It suddenly shrieked loudly, hurting our ears before lunging at us one last time, but Corphish leaped up and once again brought down the hammer, smashing the back of it's head hard with both claws.

"YES!" I yelled in victory, the adrenaline filling me with a sort of thrill. This thrill almost seem to make me more aware and heightened my senses, for I saw out of the corner of my eye Chimeco fleeing towards us with the other aerodactyl in pursuit.

"I couldn't gold him off! AAH!" She yelled as Corphish went in with fast, poised to strike again with his claws, but missed his target and the aerodactyl made him pay for it by scratching hi quite deeply with one of it's claws. I never knew Corphish could scream like this, but it was high and very loud in reaction to the intense pain that was delivered by the aerodactyl. And yet, he was an alarmingly tough cookie, and in spite of the nasty gash, still managed to aim and strike with a jet of water from his claws while lying on the ground in pain.

"ARGH!" Corphish yelled in pain, putting pressure on the wound to try and reduce the blood loss. Chimeco had stopped panicking, most fortunately, for when I went to see how bad Corphish's wound was, I did not see the aerodactyl's jaws close around me. I could have been eaten alive right there and now if it were not for an attack from Chimeco that may have been psybeam that knocked it's head away from me, leaving me with nothing but a light scratch from it's teeth. Using the last of my energy, I spun round, sending sharp leaves its way before jumping quite high up and sliced at the aerodactyl with my both my tail leaf and a dose vengeance to go with it. It had clearly had enough and fled. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, thinking about this ordeal.

I must have came close to death about three times in hindsight of it all - and yet I never really thought about it during our time on Mount Horn. In fact, it was more thrilling and exciting than scary, and the was an uncanny satisfaction of kicking ass by slicing at your assailants with a battle-axe like leaf, and having all sorts of strange abilities. I still hated it, but It was now impossible not to accept the fact that I found it thrilling - all this dangerous exploring quite frankly did inject a lot of excitement into my life. In a way, I guess you could say that I enjoyed it in a very strange way, in spite of all the violence and all the risks. I hated myself for it though - that non-violence pact I made with myself as a human? It was obviously long gone due to unfortunate circumstances, but I was now finding a part of myself not wanting to keep it. I couldn't help but have that part think that, and it sickened me to the core. This thinking almost seemed to blot out Corphish's grunts and yells of pain, as Chimeco applied a field dressing to him, assuring him that if he can get up and walk down the mountain, he'd be able to get better help at the camp. This import information was just background to me. What was I becoming...

"...You don't look badly injured at all Floyd, is something wrong?" Chimeco said. I stalled for about five seconds and replied..

"No...just taking in the view..." I said and started walking down the other side of the mountain, with both me and Chimeco supporting Corphish down the hill, suddenly realising how tired and exhausted we were. We all had our last oran berry to keep us going, but even then, it wasn't helping all that much. We had been awake for a very long time and had been very active, and not even the sunlight seemed to provide me with much of a kick. Corphish looked like he was about to nod off at any second however, and we had to nudge him a few times to make sure he didn't completely nod off. Very suddenly, Corphish's head turned, and mine followed suit to see what he was looking at.

"I knew we should have went through the cave..." Corphish said, his voice shaking a bit. Indeed there was what seemed to have been another cave dug in the side of the mountain. Perhaps it was a tunnel after all, though we couldn't be sure.

"Well, we got here..." I said, but Corphish suddenly looked angry, and I prepared myself for his incoming rant.

I fucking knew it!" He said very loudly at me, almost spitting as he shouted. "We could have avoided all this trouble with them and this gash on my side which still fucking hurts and only thanks to Chimeco isn't still bleeding." He said breathing deeply, his eyes fixed on mine, refusing to blink. Anger was quite often contagious and was liable to spread, and this was no exception, as I scorned at him.

"I saved your miserable life, and this is how you thank me? If it were not for me, you would not be here ranting right now! Show some gratitude your elders, you ungrateful piece of shit!" I said loudly back at him. I had never felt so snubbed in my life, and I hadn't felt this angry in a very long time.

"If you had only heeded my suggestion...you do realise explorers avoid danger if possible? Take the safest route that doesn't hinder the exploration too much?" He said, trying to spew his ways at me. I inhaled deeply, trying to bring myself to say something mature back.

"OK, how could I have known it was a tunnel and not a cave, and how do you know that it's not just two caves? You merely suspected it, and where I come from, tunnels that go through mountains are unheard of." A partial lie with tunnels that were built for roads, but he didn't need to know that.

"Just...lets go to the camp. Perhaps not the best bunch of decisions I made, but I got us here, no?" Corphish grumbled, still feeling awake and walked on, holding the dressing that Chimeco put on. Again, Chimeco just stayed out of the argument, and just shook her head. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky, and it wouldn't be too long until night time as we walked onwards, all fighting our tiredness and exhaustion. I drank the last in my water-skin, and I was now pretty much out of edible supplies.

"Chimeco, buddy...hover up and see if you can see the camp, will you...?" I said sleepily, and she did so. She looked down and I could see her smile - I knew it had to be good.

"They're just finishing putting it together! We made it! Just past the trees, probably just under half a mile!" She said happily and suddenly moved quickly towards the site, and Corphish seemed to follow suit, almost ignoring their own exhaustion I kept up and followed them. While in the small patch of trees, Corphish suddenly signalled us to stop.

"What is it?" I asked, and Corphish pointed ahead. I leaned forward and looked through the bushes to where he was pointing. Wigglytuff and Chatot were talking in private, with Chatot clearly trying to explain something to the mentally-haemorrhaged clown. Would I deny my own curiosity and eaves drop? Of course not! I crawled silently through the bushes quietly to get in earshot, and let's just say, what I heard was very interesting.

"I have no idea why they're not here." Chatot said, shaking his head. "I did as you asked guildmaster - we went on ahead to plan the camp while I ordered Loudred and Sunflora to lead the rest of the guild to the camp, so they would we would have a plan ready for them to set up and build."

"Are you sure they all went in one big friendly group?" Wigglytuff said, with his same, rather stupid looking smile.

"Absolutely, unless they went away while in the group" Chatot said, shrugging.

"Well, I'll go and ask Sunflora and Loudred if they have seen our missing three friends then." Wigglytuff said, keeping his silly smile, which seemed to fade gradually, and then, suddenly vanished into the nether realm, or at least it seemed like that as he darted off extremely quickly. It was the first time I had seen him with a serious expression on his face. I had no time to contemplate about Wigglytuff here upon looking at the scene. Chatot looked very uneasy - I could tell by his facial expression that Wigglytuff being in a serious mood meant bad news.

"Actually, I don't need to, because I already asked. Now, Chatot, what did you think they told me?" Chatot sweated in nervousness, and did not respond "Well, I know fine well you know, but I'll tell you anyway. They hadn't seen Corphish, or Chimeco, or Floyd since they left the guild building. I will try again with you, Chatot - why do you think that is?" He said, moving close to Chatot's face, and he still didn't get a response. Wigglytuff's expression morphed from seriousness to anger, and Chatot looked like he wanted to run, even though he wasn't allowed to.

"Because YOU ordered them to stay behind at the guild when I had SPECIFICALLY told you that EVERYONE had proven themselves capable to go! I would ask you why that is, but I already know." He said and jabbed Chatot's chest. "It's for the sole reason, that you hate them. That's all, isn't it - you couldn't stand Corphish bitching about you behind his back, and for quite frankly, legitimate reasons, you couldn't stand Chimeco helping Floyd void a disproportionate and unhealthy punishment, you couldn't stand Floyd for telling you to 'fuck off' after the disgraceful treatment you have been giving him. I have half a mind to send you back to the guild, apologize to them, bring them back, and apologize to them again with everyone watching and listening!"

"But I need you here...unfortunately. Let this be a reminder to you that I am the guildmaster and not you - lie, or purposefully do a bad job again, and I will cut your pay in half. Get out of my sight and make sure the camp set up is totally finished." Chatot didn't need another telling to, and sped off behind the tent. So it would seem like the bastard had actually lied to us in order to simply not have to be with those he didn't like. I saw Wigglytuff sigh in frustration and sit down on the grass.

"I'm not too surprised to be honest..." Chimeco said quietly. "I guess we should show our selves to the guildmaster. It'd make him feel better."

"Waitwaitwait wait, wait. Hold on. Wigglytuff - I thought he was just some ditz who happened to be a genius explorer?" I said tor her.

"Well, he's a very hard person to figure out. I bet you would never guess that he's actually fifty-four years old, his only signs of age can really be noticed if you look at him really closely. I think he's only serious when he actually really needs to be. Other than that, he indulges in his own innocent and childlike ways." Chimeco said, and decided to move forward to reveal herself, myself and Corphish to Wigglytuff. As soon as he noticed, he clearly returned to his 'normal' self and ran at us, with the most cheerful expression I had seen since I wound up being a Snivy, taking great bounces at each step with his large eyes becoming even larger.

"You came! Thank you!" he said and he hugged all three of us tightly. This was most discomforting - I was never a 'huggy' guy as a human. I would turn down pretty much all hug offers from others, and especially from non-humans showing affection, but this was just bizarre.

"Please...let go." I asked, though Wigglytuff had let go by this point anyway.

"Oh, sorry. It's just...well, Chatot made a mistake when announcing of who was to go on the expedition - I said to him to say that even you three were going, and I think he misheard me. But it's OK, you're all here now, my friendly friends!" He said gleefully. It was hard to say what Wigglytuff I preferred - the semi-scary serious one, or the slightly insane child-like one, but it was obvious that Wigglytuff himself preferred his usual self, since he did lie to us about Chatot. Whether to protect us from the rather nasty truth or for guild cohesion, I couldn't tell.

"Why don't you go and see your fellow guild mates now, before you get to sleepy - you all look utterly drained, you poor friends" He said and entered his tent, coincidentally the largest, which didn't surprise me really.

"Think we should tell the others about Chatot?" Chimeco asked.

"No, for two reasons. One, I don't think Wigglytuff wants the others to know - I mean, if everyone found out the second in command was a dirty liar, I think it'd be terrible morale for the expedition, and second, we now have a weapon we can use against him, a threat. I want to keep it until we can use it at a more suitable time." I said, grinning slightly. I could really dent his reputation within the guild at any moment by simply revealing what he done. However, I intended to save it for another time.

"Floyd? I thought Chatot said that you failed to be accepted!" I heard a familiar voice say to my left. There was no mistaking it, as I saw a very happy looking Serge running towards me. I inhaled and held up my hand.

"No hugs, thank you. And I'm pleased to see you as well." I said, learning my lesson of what happened with Wigglytuff. "I'm coming on the expedition. Chatot and Wigglytuff had...communication errors when deciding on who was to go. Fortunately, we decided to come anyway. We were supposed to. after all" I found it incredibly hard to leak the information about Chatot to him, but I resisted with a sturdy face

"You don't look all that happy, Floyd." He said, clearly concerned, but I somehow felt irritated.

"I'm just very tired - I've been awake for at least forty hours, and yes, there were a couple of fights along the way - my eyes are red, aren't they." I said. I knew as soon as I'd lie down, I'd fall asleep, but I might as well get my stuff ready first. "Just show me to my tent."

"Sure..." Serge said and led me over, and I dumped my bag inside. "Two per tent, we'll be sharing. I suppose I'd better tell Bidoof you've arrived. I'm sure he'd be happier sharing with Corphish, if he also decided to come."

"Yes, he did." I said. "There will be food and drink in the morning before we go, will there?"

"Oh yes" He said, packing his own things away in the tent.

"And something to sleep on or in?"

"Uh, nope" He said casually, as if it didn't bother him, and well, considering how tired I was, not even I was all that bothered. I heard gasps from other guild members as they laid eyes on Corphish and Chimeco, obviously surprised as hell to see them. I even saw Corphish collapse in exhaustion and tiredness, and was pulled into one of the tents. Chatot's expression showed his disbelief, but I could also see his subtle disappointment behind it all. I knew that he had not only lost what he gained, but also got a very strict warning from Wigglytuff.

I would still need to get my personal vengeance on him though - a top Dialgan maxim was to try and have some sort of retribution on someone who wronged you if possible, providing your revenge brings less negative outcomes to your target than the negative outcomes they brought upon you, as this would make sure that you keep the moral high ground while discouraging wrongdoing – something that caused a lot of controversy back home. A shunting of his respect seemed like an appropriate punishment for Chatot, and I wanted to time it well. As everyone started returning to their tents, still yammering on loudly, I turned around to head into my own, when I saw an interesting tree formation. It didn't seem that unusual, and yet, I felt compelled to take a closer look.

"Going anywhere, Floyd?" Serge asked, and I paused for a brief moment, trying to figure out what was beaconing me there.

"Yes...I'll be back in a minute..." I said distantly, vaguely walking towards the forest. The pattern of trees...they weren't too unusual, and yet, they were distinctive in a way I couldn't lay my finger on. In an even stranger way, it was almost as if I had seen them in a very distant dream before, but to be honest, this did happen to me occasionally as a human, but such deja-vu was pretty much always the case of the person's own mind and memories playing tricks on them, so I scrapped that thought.

I went for a closer look, and I felt compelled to go through the trees, as if some pokemon based instinct inside me was driving me to. Again, once I was making my way through here, things seemed like a distant dream - it seemed extremely vaguely familiar, but as if I had viewed it before from a different angle, an angle I would not normally consider looking from. Looking as I pushed my way through the branches to what I was stepping on to avoid making too much noise, I pushed onwards. I saw a couple a few unusual looking mushrooms, and a small group of ants scurrying across a log. They seemed big, but then I remembered it was because I was small. Then I found something of far more curiosity - it was bright red, and looked incredibly out of place - it seemed like some sort of stone upon closer inspection.

Once again, curiosity got the better of me and I picked it up. It was no ruby, that's for sure - far to...strange to be one. Stranger still, it seemed to emit a faint heat. I hoped it was not some form of hardened shit, as it would be the most likely explanation, but I held onto it anyway. Perhaps someone else would know what it was. Tiredness was hitting me again as I started heading back, and it was hitting me harder than ever, with my vision becoming ever so slightly blurry, and I had to consciously keep my eyes firmly open and breathe deeply.

Upon returning to the camp site, I gazed upwards, and saw a fantastic display of stars, my eyes obviously becoming fully accustomed to the darkness. Being a city dweller back home, I never had a chance to really view the stars, so I made the most of it by lying backwards to look at them. Now, I could see the occasional constellation, notably Orion back in the human world, but I could not see it here - I could recognize nothing in that starlit sky, and how I did not notice this before, I do not know, but on looking from one end of the sky to the other, I could see two moons. On all cases but this, I would find it very beautiful, but it was not - It made me feel totally lost. It made me realise that I truly had no idea how far away I was from home. Was I in another part of the galaxy? The universe? Another dimension, even? Were those bastard Giratina worshippers actually correct in stating there was another dimension?

The feeling of true loneliness overcame me as I realised a grim truth - I was a lost, scared young man, trapped in what appears to be some other world, and being trapped in a different body. Nothing ever felt truly 'right' for me in the body of a snivy - the shorter limbs, the big nose, and especially the tail, and yet it felt trivial to the fact that I was away from home, and I had no idea how to return - I swore I could see my much loved things back home in those stars - my friends, family, and even my human self, but just like those stars up there, they felt unreachable. How desperate was I to try and follow local legends for glimmers of hope, and all the shit I went through, and still going through, was only to regain what I had lost - I had not really gained anything through out this ordeal. I almost felt like crying as my own vision went blurry, as It felt like little insects were pushing my eye lids close and massaging my brain into unconsciousness. The last thing I felt was my sleeping body being pulled into the tent next to me before I faded into deep sleep.


	9. Legend Hunting

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 9: Legend Hunting

Upon going to sleep that night, I expected a rude awakening as you would expect from being part of this guild, but my wake-up was actually gently induced by Serge, who told me rather gently that it was time to get up.

"Wigglytuff said that you, Chimeco and Corphish could sleep for longer to help catch up - but the briefing's going to be in fifteen minutes, you'd better get your breakfast." He said, nudging me slightly. I groaned, yet I felt compelled to wake up for what might happen today - I probably only had ten hours of sleep, and, even though I'd probably sleep for six more easily, searching for Uxie, supposed embodiment and being of knowledge, was not something to sleep over. I got up without saying anything to Serge whatsoever and immediately started on my helping of some kind of soup. God only knows what sort of soup it was, but it tasted decent enough.

"Golly, I can't believe we're about to enter uncharted territory like this! This is the sort of adventure I've been dreaming of for years!" Bidoof said to me, clearly enthusiastic for the expedition for way different reasons that I was, which I fully expected. That glutton - eating his soup like it was some kind of sprint race. In contrast, I was eating it slowly, my mind fixed on Uxie. I knew the rough descriptions of what he supposedly looked like - I wasn't completely ignorant of the Arceus faith after all, and everything I saw around me went through a strange Uxie filter, as my imagination painted all manner of Uxie pictures on my retinas. Chatot was marching up and down slowly and orderly, looking at everyone with inspecting eyes, clearly wanting to get the briefing over and done with already. Team Skull just sat among themselves, talking fairly quietly to one another, and Wigglytuff - just stood there like a spare part, really. He eventually did something - it turned out to be the signal for Chatot to give the briefing.

"Explorers, give me your undivided attention now." He said fairly loudly, without shouting, and brought everyone's attention to him. "Ok, just behind me, is uncharted territory - it's been labelled the Foggy Forest, appropriately, for the perpetual fog that surrounds it - there has not been a recorded incident or witness that has suggested that this forest was at one stage not surrounded by fog. Our aim is to find out why this is, to chart this territory, discover fogbound lake, should it exist, and, of course, find treasure!" He said, smiling upon saying the word 'treasure.' He coughed and walked somewhat to the side, preparing for what he was going to say next - he reminded me of my dad, somehow - he gave the daily briefings in a very similar fashion that my dad ran the Dialgan church services.

"We will all be split into three groups to cover more ground while still remaining safe. Croagunk - you seemed to get on fine with Team Skull, would you mind joining them?" Chatot asked - how oddly courteous of him. Croagunk shrugged, not seeming too fussed.

"Meh heh, sure" He said.

"I'll give a brief leader briefing to you as we start to head out Skuntank, so don't hurry off, if you please." Skuntank, nodded without saying anything.

"With me - Loudred, Sunflora, Diglett and Dugtrio." He said, looking at each one as he said their names in a slow and clear manner. "And Corphish, Bidoof, Serge, Floyd and Chimeco with Wigglytuff" He said in a considerably faster manner, since it was pretty obvious of what was happening. "Gather your stuff, you have two minutes - go!" He said, and everyone on his command did exactly as they were told - getting their own exploration gear from the tents. Chatot then started on briefing Skuntank on what his group should do, while I stuck my large nose in the tent - I didn't want to travel to light, but Corphish took almost everything he could with him - surely overkill. Chimeco was already with The Guildmaster, and I soon joined them. Chatot looked like he was about to say something else, but Wigglytuff butted in.

"OK guild, let the expedition begin! Yoom-Tah!" He yelled and started outright running into to the forest - I didn't find it hard to keep up, but I couldn't say the same for the others, especially Corphish and Bidoof, who were not only fairly slow movers, but they also took the most stuff with them. Wigglytuff eventually got the message and waited up for everyone.

"Ooh, this is exciting!" He said, rubbing his hands with glee, leading us further into the forest. The forest seemed so still yet so alive - the thick fog induced feelings of paranoia in those not named Wigglytuff, and we found ourselves constantly looking over our shoulders - it was like the whole forest was watching us. Wigglytuff, in spite of looking like he was just in this for some kind of joy ride, showed a good deal of professionalism, and was taking notes as he went along, writing things on a notepad with an untidy scrawl. The whole forest looked pale and hazy, as if the fog was choking it. It was also starting to get a little wet, like the forest was pissing itself. Of fear or a leaky bladder? Who knows.

"Really does give a sense of exploring the unknown - this fog is almost symbolic." Serge said, looking like he was in distaste of the damp conditions - the dampness struck me as odd - it didn't seem like the condensation from the fog could do this alone. "Still, this is fully meaningful exploration - it's more than just personal - I mean, this is mysterious to everyone, right?" He said to the others. Chimeco looked the most focused, being right behind Wigglytuff, as if she was trying to be impressive, but it made no difference to her attempts to be thoroughly efficient. Bidoof, oddly enough, didn't look on edge at all - he looked so excited, his cheeks were slightly rosy.

Corphish, however, looked quite scared, and his head always twitched in the direction of the slightest noise. I wasn't much better, admittedly - I was pretty sure I had looked in all directions at least ten times so far. Serge took it all in his stride, and much like Chimeco, looked efficient in the way he was looking - he was at the back, so he let a lot of the forward-looking explorers continue looking forward while he made sure that nothing was stalking us.

"Hold on, I'm just getting a perfect apple out of my bag." Wigglytuff said as he produced an almost iconic looking plump apple - if it looked as tasty as it actually tasted, then I could understand Wigglytuff having an obsession for them. He then - I can't believe I'm saying this - hugged the apple - How much more eccentric can our leader get?! This musing was cut short by a pokemon that jumped from the trees that tried to hit Wigglytuff with an attack that I couldn't quite make out. Wigglytuff dodged by leaning to the side with some great reactions, but the apple was knocked out of his grasp.

Turns out it was a linoone, and it was hard to tell whether it wanted us out, or it was after the apple. Either way, it would invoke a gang attack on it, since there were six of us, or, if it was the apple it wanted, I could imagine Wigglytuff going on a no holds barred beat down on it's ass. Bidoof was oddly aggressive today, as he rather viciously dived at it and struck it viciously on the head, before grabbing it and head-butting it again. The linoon saw that it was hopeless trying to fight back and immediately fled, looking rather dazed as it retreated back into the fog.

"By golly...using your head really does work when it comes to exploring!" Bidoof said, and we all chuckled at his joke. Maybe he was from Glasgow, and gave the standard 'Glasgow kiss' to hit adversaries. I chuckled to myself at the amusing thought, but Wigglytuff looked oddly distressed.

"No no no! My perfect apple!" He said, pointing to it as it was rolling down the hill. "Come back!" He said, chasing it down the hill like a clown. What leadership - a clown who cares mainly for his perfect apples, a douchbag bird who acts like a fucking sargent major, and a criminal. Wonderful.

"Uh...what do we do now...? Do we just wait for him or..." I said, seeing our leader disappear into the fog. I was sure he could look after himself if all the rumours of him actually being incredibly deadly in combat being true, but I was more worried about myself.

"The time it takes for Wigglytuff to return will depend on how quickly he gets his damn apple, but that's the guildmaster for you, hey hey, and I wouldn't have him any other way." I did internally question their blind devotion to their guildmaster - I had been on the receiving end of that though - my friends asked me now and then about why I was so devoted to Dialga. Well, that was because Dialga knows best about making moral decisions - duh! Perhaps they would use the same logic on me.

"Think he'll be coming back soon?" Chimeco asked. Then Serge walked up from the back to the front, clearly he had something to say.

"I see this as an opportunity to impress the guildmaster and the guild! How about we just go without him and explore this place and find the lake!" Bidoof looked like he approved wholeheartedly. I was kind of happy for him - he was vastly more confident than when I first joined the guild, but I thought the two of them were getting ahead of themselves.

"I dunno...I'm sure he'd want us to stay here." I said, but Serge had something else to say.

"He never told us to stay here. I say we go on without him - he'll probably end up making some discovery while chasing his perfect apple by himself anyway - we'd be more useful." I was reluctantly won over, and soon, we all decided to just go on without him. Now it may have just been me, but I swore I could hear a strange constant rumbling somewhere, and it seemed to come from in front of us - what it was or how far it was away, I had no idea, but considering our travel direction, I think we'd find out soon. The forest all looked the same - every tree looked the same, and the fog was unrelenting, acting as an ominous haze. I was too busy looking to the right, making sure that no pokemon would ambush us from that direction when I felt a heavy piercing grip on my left arm

"OW! Corphish?! What the hell was that for?!" I said loudly, holding my arm in pain. Corphish was pointing to the left of the group and looked worried. This gathered everyone else's attention, but before any of us could get an idea of what he was even pointing at, he already looked away.

"Don't look, don't look!" He said, and started running ahead of us. I let loose my vines and held back my panicking team mate, sighing in frustration.

"Ok, just what the hell is it that you're so scared of?! Tell us!" I said, not beating about the bush - there was a time and a place for doing that, but being direct to the point was vital at these times.

"...A lopunny." He said. As serious as he looked, I had to try not to laugh - we took on a walrien with less guild members before - this just made no sense. "Bidoof, look away, I'm telling you! You know what they do? They captivate you in a seductive gaze, and before you know it, they start leading you away and you're never seen again! I think we should just move quickly away from it, and it might give up, come on guys, let's go!" He said, frantically gesturing us to move, but none of us really agreed.

"If we ignore it, Corphish, it might attack from behind, we can't risk that. Someone needs to keep an eye on it if we're not going to chase it off." I looked at it out of the corner of my eye - Corphish was right to an extent - it did seem to be attempting to do as Corphish said and to lead people astray, but I felt unmoved - if I was, I would be repulsed at myself for finding a pokemon attractive!

"Ok, fine - Chimeco, you'd better deal with it - the rest of us are male." He said, still looking highly stressed, and extremely serious, a trait I did not share. Chimeco looked a bit unsure about this.

"That lopunny will probably be a very fast mover...I might not be able to take it down without some kind of support." She said, and I was getting quite angry at all this pointless discussion.

"Y'know what, I'll do it!" I said, grinding my teeth as I stomped towards the lopunny, who seemed to be trying to focus all it's efforts on me. Pah, I have more self-respect than this. I stood right up in front of it for about five seconds, shook my head and delivered a sort of back-flip uppercut attack using my heavier tail leaf, leaving a vicious, and very long cut all the way up it's body, but to be sure, I attacked again, jumping once again in the air, and sliced the lopunny across it's face without any form of mercy. It screamed in pain and surprise and ran off deep inside the forest. I nodded and turned around and walked back to the others. They all looked a little surprised, but Corphish especially looked amazed, and also curious at the same time.

"Ok, what was so fucking hard about that?! Let's just keep going..." I said bitterly at them, this time taking the lead. Corphish scuttled up to me as I led them deeper into the forest, and tapped my shoulder to get my attention.

"This may seem strange to ask but...are you gay? You didn't even looked phased by her attempts to seduce you." He asked quietly. I was shocked to think that he would assume that at all!

"No! Why would you think that? Oh, no, you see, in my culture, where I come from, It's extremely taboo to have relationships with others that aren't of your own species. I could never find a lopunny attractive!" Truth be told, I never found anything to be sexy, so much so I considered myself asexual, and I always thought relationships were a waste of time. But if I said that to Corphish, he probably wouldn't believe it and continue pestering me with the issue - I was impressed with my rapid cover-up story - I was almost forming a complete fake back story of myself to fool the others, and it was working!

The rumbling was getting slightly louder, and we encountered no aggressive pokemon for quite some time, and the trees were starting to become a bit more sparse, but the ground wetter in contrast - some parts were borderline marshy, and Serge didn't look happy about it at all. The rumbling got louder still, and it was covering almost all of the background noise, and it was about then I saw something out of place - it was no tree in the distance - or at least as far as you could see in this fog. I went over to it rather quickly, and my jaw dropped slightly in wonder. It was a statue of some kind, which prompted me to move closer to inspect it - incredible! It was a statue of the legendary being Groudon, the Behemoth, which is said in the occasional piece of religious scripture to have created the land mass on planet Earth and to help people with floods in ancient times.

The Arceists claim that Regigigas was responsible for organizing the landmass, but Dialga tells me that it was Groudon. I also wondered who the hell built this statue - it was so very out of place in the forest, however, I could see crumbled pillars and intact pillars surrounding the statue. I was also quite curious of how the pokemon in this world knew about otherworldly legends, considering that Groudon surely lived in the human world back home. The internal questioning was soon interrupted by the other guys, all crowding around the statue. Serge was writing something down - obviously this was noteworthy, Corphish and Bidoof were looking at it from all sides with excitement, with Chimeco doing the same in a far more composed manner.

"By golly, it says something here!" Bidoof said loudly.

"Hey hey! He's right! Come and see this guys!" Corphish said even louder, and I took a look with the others. I looked at the engraved text, but it was in some language I couldn't read, and by the looks of things, no one here understood what it said at all.

"...Well that's useful..." I said, looking at the 'text' closely, stroking my hand against the statue, but was still unable to determine anything from it. The text didn't even look like a series of symbols, and more like someone carving curved lines absolutely nonsensically over the entire plaque, alongside what could have been braille dots, if it resembled any form of pattern.

And it happened again - that ringing in my ears, the sudden dizziness - another vision was about to happen for sure. This one was just bizarre though - I mean, hovering above the ground in my visions was hardly surprising, and this was no exception to the rule. In fact, I found myself looking at the statue, except that no one was there - and then I saw something that I hadn't seen in over a month - humans. There were thee of them, all male, and they looked like they were exploring themselves. They were chattering too each other, also about finding Uxie.

"Look, people, I'm telling you that Uxie is out best bet - I got us this far, didn't I?" The tallest one said.

"Harvey, can't you see that you're probably following blind rumours? We've been wandering around in this fog for two hours, and I'm getting concerned - we only have these wooden planks for protecting us, and the pokemon here are most uncivilized. If they attack us..." The other man said in a thick French accent, but the smallest, and by far the most out of place man suddenly spoke.

"I see..a statue." He said in a strange accent, and it was evident that his English wasn't good. "But...I want to see Giratina - he will help us if we can find him." The most striking feature about him was that in his left hand, he held a stone that was all to familiar - the very same one I picked up outside of the camp-site!

"Acalan, would you please not mention that abomination! Anyway, Benoit, this stature is odd - a Groudon stature - but what's it doing here? We never taught the pokemon here how to build statues like this, and even if we did, how could such a statue find it's way here? We spent two years with them, and oversaw their ascent to civilization." He said as they walked over to it - Benoit and Harvey were English for sure - no hiding their thick accents, but as for Acalan...well, he looked like he belonged to some primitive tribe.

"There's something written here, some ancient language I'm guessing Harvey...if this is truly a language." Benoit said, looking at the same text that we failed to understand. Acalan, however, looked a little more enlightened. He seemed to read it and started speaking in a very alien tongue, locked in a trance of some kind.

"You can read this?" Harvey said, looking at him. He nodded and inhaled, as if he was trying to think of how it would translate in English.

"Re-ignite...the life...that burned within...Groudon...then the sky...shall blaze...with the sun's heat...and the you shall...find what you seek..." Acalan said, looking like he was concentrating very hard. the other two pondered this for a moment.

"Say, Benoit, do you think that 'reigniting the life that burned within Groudon' will cause the fog to go? We might be able to find Uxie with far less difficulty?" Harvey said, and Benoit nodded slightly.

"But how on Arceus's green Earth do we do that?! I mean, that's an extremely strange riddle if I ever saw one!" He said fairly loudly. Harvey, however, wasn't listening much and focused on inspecting the stature.

"Found something odd - it's chest - that wasn't chipped away, it's far too smooth for that." He said, pointing at it's chest - I was too far away to make it out clearly, but I guessed it was some kind of hole. "I bet it's this that will make the fog go away."

"Statues making fog go aw..." Benoit started to retort, but Harvey held up his hand.

"No point in putting a lead to waste, even if it does seem strange, a statue altering the weather..." Harvey said, rubbing the hole with his fingers. "I'm actually starting to be glad that this tribesman somehow got pulled into this world with us - he's not dead weight at all, and has helped us here! I'll sit on this rock to try and think about this stature, I suggest you and Acalan do the same." It became apparent that he was the self-appointed leader of this trio, and all three of them sat down separately for a think. Benoit was almost motionless, Acalan was staring at his spear and his stone, but Harvey took some jewels out of his bag to stare at.

"If...no, when I get out of here...I'll be a wealthy, wealthy man..." I heard him mutter to himself, but the other two didn't hear him. And yet, perhaps it didn't matter, because Benoit saw this and he strode over to him.

"Still staring at your gemstones?" He said, shaking his head before looking at the one Acalan had, looking puzzled at the fascination he had with it. "Mind passing it over for a moment? Don't worry, you found it, we'll let you keep this one."

"This one's still very warm, and you picked that up two hours ago - how strange..." He said after he passed it over, walking around with it in his hand. "It's no ordinary gem..." He then broke into a smile. "And perhaps for no ordinary purpose!" He ran over to the statue and tried putting the gem in the whole.

"Perfect fit..." Benoit said, stepping back a bit to gaze at the Groudon statue. The statue did nothing for about ten seconds, and then I swore the statue's eyes glowed red. It was fairly subtle, but not nearly as subtle as what happened next. A massive column of light that could almost blind you either shot up from the statue or went down on the statue - it was impossible to tell, but the fog seemed to scatter like insects running from fire, and before long, 'Foggy Forest' was not so foggy after all. "I am a genius!"

"Incredible!" Harvey said, looking around. "Although, there's just one thing - we helped a population of pokemon become civilized - before we came, there were no form of civilization - they weren't much better than animals, but we helped them...but that begs the question...who built this statue, and how were you, Acalan, able to read the text? Think maybe back in time members of your South American tribe came here before us? If this was your language...did you even have a written language?" Acalan was quiet as usual, but Benoit gasped and pointed.

"There it is...Fogbound Lake! Uxie awaits us! I should have had more faith in you Harvey!" The other two looked and also gasped.

"What a beautiful sight..." Acalan said, in a more sophisticated voice than usual, but by this time, the vision was ending, and everything blurred to black, but this time, I felt myself being shaken rather roughly this time.

"Floyd, please get up!" It sounded like Bidoof, and I felt myself being shaken awake by him and Corphish. I groaned, and I was helped up.

"Calm down, please...I'm OK." Well, I was OK, until Serge opened his leaky trap.

"Floyd, did you see anything that will help us here? Any vision, or..." He said, and I cast him a deathly glare, but it was too late - overwhelming interest had sparked from the other three.

"What...did you say Serge?" "A vision?" "He saw the future?" "The past?" "Why didn't you tell us?" Things like that were said many times to me in the space of fifteen seconds before I just lost it.

"Shut. The fuck. UP!" I yelled at them, which seemed to quieten them down a bit. I didn't care to hear their questions at all, and crudely took the warm red gemstone out of my bag, and then for the strangest reasons, the messy carvings on the plaque seemed to be forming into words as the stone started glowing slightly. I was a little too creeped out to appreciate it, and just decided to jam it into the empty slot/

"Back away, people!" I ordered as me moved away from the statue as it's eyes started to glow red. "And don't look or you may be blinded." I said and looked away as the statue worked it's magic and in mere seconds, the fog was lifted. I turned and looked at the statue once more - the stone was very firmly in place.

"I think I will name the gem 'Groudon's heart' for it's red, is lodged in at the position of it's heart on the statue, and seems to activate Groudon's legendary abilities to alter the weather." I said, and slowly looked up - and what I saw made me almost faint - it was no longer Fogbound Lake was hidden for this long, and I knew I was staring at it right now. What it looked like to me, was a gigantic, an utterly colossal natural fountain, shaped like those found in some gardens. The waterfalls - they were the water that was spilling over the edge of the lake supported magnificently in the sky from it's narrow rocky foundations, which opened up into a wide bowl in the sky. It was sheer beauty, and my eyes were gorging themselves on this sight - nothing like this in my world even existed - I tried to imagine how it was formed - volcanic activity gone crazy perhaps, but I decided to just let the wonder of what I was seeing override my constant searches for explanations for every little thing.

Even magic had it's place in a head ruled by science, logic and emotion. The sight was such a marvel, that it made me not think about the humans I saw in my vision - I'd have time to think of that later. I heard gasps from the others as well, looking almost as in awe as I remained captivated by the view of it. I didn't even think about the humans I saw in my vision at all, but surely that would change soon. I was also glad the lake distracted them from the fact I can see into the future...or maybe that was the past this time...anyway, I didn't end up thinking about it until Corphish finally spoke.

"Hey hey! That makes us the one's who discovered fogbound lake!" He said, clicking his claws in delight. "But that does leave a problem - how do we get up there? Hey, even if we don't we still sort of discovered it, hey?"

"...Well...perhaps if we go to the base of this gigantic fountain, we might be able to see something" Serge said, but Chimeco looked like she had other ideas.

"I think we should report back to the others right away and get further instructions from the guildmaster...wherever he went to." But for me, this was my big chance - the lake was revealed! I now knew for sure where Uxie was! This was the time to truly act.

"Serge...I don't think you're thinking ahead far enough - we are going to the top and see the lake for ourselves! All five of us!" I said boldly - to be honest, anything to keep them distracted from asking me about my visions, but the cat was kind of out of the bag now...surely no one else would believe them. Yes, I think I will be safe from mass questioning and scrutiny. I convinced them fairly easily to come with me as we plodded through the marshes to the base of the lake.

Mudkips and woopers had clearly made a home here, the conditions being ideal for them, and they were very passive, with just a couple looking at us as we went onwards. As the jaw-dropping awe of the sight of the gigantic natural fountain started to subside slightly, my thoughts turned to the statue we encountered. Perhaps this giant fountain had perplexing volcanic activity to allow it to form the way it did, but the statue – I had NOTHING on it. I couldn't explain it at all. What correlation did some out of place statue have with a stone I found that had the power to affect the weather a few miles in radius? I couldn't even to begin to imagine how or why it could possibly happen. Some crazy dream by the gods, dumped and abandoned here? It was honestly the best I had. That statue might as well have been full blown magic by this point.

The sun had became surprisingly intense, as I could almost see the water in the marshes evaporate slowly around us. Serge oddly enough didn't look uncomfortable, and was somewhat quieter than usual, but as I looked behind me to see where the others were, I saw that the other three were walking right up to me.

"...Yes?" I said curiously, but it was what I didn't want to hear at all.

"Ok, Floyd - you just saw into a different time period when you passed out which somehow got you to figure out that you had to put that weird gem in the statue to make the fog lift. I mean, that's incredible!" Chimeco said, looking a bit perkier than usual. "I mean, how and when can you do this?" I just shrugged at her, but Bidoof used it as a cue to chime in himself.

"By golly, do tell us more!" Bidoof asked.

"How long have you been able to do this?" Corphish chimed in, and I didn't like this at all. Politely, I wish they'd drop and forget about it, and speak no more shit of it, but I didn't think it was going to happen at all. I inhaled and sighed.

"...Speak to Serge about it. It's probably all extreme coincidence anyway." I said flatly and walked ahead, being more interested in the massive natural fountain in front of me. I heard gossips and gasps around me, as they learned about me from Serge. I sighed - I failed to come up with a good lie to throw them off, and even now, I still couldn't, but there was some encouragement from this - I also heard Serge tell them not to bother me about it, thank god for that. At least if they shut up about me having visions, it wouldn't be as discomforting, since if they didn't, they would likely go up to me constantly, always asking for their fortunes to be told and other shit like that. If it were to leak, then blending in until a chance for escape in this ungodly world would be almost impossible.

I also began to think about what I saw in the vision - was it the future or the past I saw? Upon thinking, it just had to be the past - they talked of bringing pokemon up to civilized levels...were they the humans that Chatot referred to a couple of weeks ago?! The ones who brought civilization to the pokemon of this world?! I wonder if they had the chance to return to their own world. Seems like they were trying to from what I could tell, and were thinking on the exact same wavelength as I was - seeing if Uxie had the answers. I was not almost at the base of Fogbound Lake, and I began to inspect it, and the others soon caught up and joined me. The rock structure was like nothing I had seen in my world, and I was bewildered - there was even bored out holes right at the ground of it - some big enough for us to go into.

"Think that's the way up there guys?" Serge said, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Pay attention to the structure, Serge, why would it be even feasible?!" I said to him, almost hitting my head with my palm, but my opinion's changed when Corphish spoke his part.

"Remember, Floyd, about the tunnel through the mountain, but you didn't believe me...I say it's worth a shot - we could get even more recognition now!" Corphish said "Hey hey, I 'ain't passing this up!" I was won over - I guess nothing particularly bad would happen if we just poked inside, and besides, rock formations were stupidly different in this world, as if they had a completely different set of rules that they went by. For all I knew, Serge might be onto something, so I just went with it.

"Ok, ok, let's go check it out." I said and followed the others in. None of us had to duck, which was fortunate, and it began to get a bit wider as we continued to go through the narrow passageway. It started opening up into a sort of cave, with strange passageways that must have lead to the top, or at least I hope it did. Hell, it might even be possible to get to the lake from here!

"Think these are natural, or they've been dug by someone?" I thought out loud as I marvelled at the interior of this natural fountain. I walked to what seemed the centre point in the fountain and looked up, and then down - the hole here must have been formed by some sort of gigantic geyser, that must have originated from the volcanic activity. As much as I wanted to get to the top, I also couldn't help thinking about how this natural marvel came to be. But of course, Uxie would surely have the answers, so I quickly joined my friends on the ascent. This place was quite steamy, and it made the place feel incredibly humid.

"Just taking a drink, I think I'll be needing a few of them at this rate." I said and started drinking some water. It was sure needed, as I walked over the damp, rather hot rocks. The others didn't seem to mind, and Serge seemed to like it, but I was assuming it was to do with us all being a different species.

"Hmm...think anything lives here?" Chimeco said, looking around as she hovered just behind Serge.

"Hey hey!" Corphish said "You'll..." He said and slowly looked to the left and gulped.

"Jinx it..." The native pokemon who saw us did not look happy, and there were a fair amount of them - numels, magbys, slugmas, and a magmar. There was actually plant life within the cave, somehow, which must have formed an ecosystem for those who have survival advantages in hot places such as this. By now, I was getting a little fed up of the constant aggression from these uncivilized bastards.

"There's ten of them...looks like we'll be in for a bit of a fight, because I want to be the one who discovers Fogbound lake! And the rest of you! We can do this!" He said, rallying confidence and support, and I was with him, finding the way to return home was worth a little risk and violence, but I was already sweating badly, and I know I'd find it hard to fight.

They seemed to run at us in a rather staggered and disorganized way, minus the slugmas, who only slithered forward fairly slowly. Corphish wasted no time, primed both his claws and shot jets of water for them like a dual wielding cowboy. His accuracy wasn't too good, but it was doing the job, the native pokemon screaming in pain as they were stunned in pain as they got struck by the pressure-shot water gun attacks. Bidoof then proved that he was starting to learn well by charging head first at the stunned magmar, leaping at it and rather viciously head-butting it in the face, knocking it to the ground in a daze. However, he was almost immediately burned straight after by a torrent of flames from one of the smaller pokemon, but Serge was quick to assist, using his superior physical strength to hit two of the magbys hard with signature living fire-wreathed tackle. Corphish, inspired by Serge and Bidoof charged right into close quarters.

"YAAAARRRGGHHH!" Corphish yelled, letting out a furious battle cry, as he continued to shoot the aggressors with torrents of water. Eventually, Chimeco and I followed in, but I was getting exhausted far quicker than the others due to the heat - my attacks felt limp and laboured, and their skin was too hot to touch for absorb attack, but try I did, even crippling a numel, before getting tacked from behind by one of it's friends, sending me sprawling to the floor. I quickly pushed myself up in time to avoid it's second attack, and for some reason, it charged right into the cave wall and knocked itself out. Double dumbass on that numel! I looked around and saw Chimeco chuckling, indicating that she had something to do with it.

"Thanks..." I said, readying myself to keep fighting. It was like I was suffering from heat exhaustion up here, and yet, the others only seemed to think it was slightly hot. My cursed cold-blooded body...it was far too sensitive to heat changes for my liking. That being said, it still looked like my friends were handling things just fine, with no one so far suffering any particular injuries. I even managed to help out again by using vine whip as a lasso to trip up a charging numel, but that soon changed. The magmar suddenly got to its feet, and I knew this wouldn't be good.

"The magmar's up, watch out!" I yelled, but it wasted no time whatsoever, and it's hand seemed to light up in flames and punched Corphish so hard that he was sent several meters back and crashed into the cave wall with an audible whack.

"AAARGH!" Corphish screamed in pain, coughing up a bit of blood. "Get...them..." He sounded very weak. The rest of us looked frantically at the remaining assailants - there were only four left now, the others must have ran away in fear.

"Bidoof, protect Corphish. Serge, deal with magmar, and Chimeco, I think you can handle those slugma, right?" I said as a self-appointed leader, assessing the situation. Good field leadership was something I felt the beings of this world lacked, and while I wasn't really qualified, someone had to do it. I just hope that no one cared about my lack of getting stuck in with combat attitude, but I had an excuse this time. Serge was utterly pulverizing the magmar with attacks that blurred slightly, constantly hitting the magmar at every weak location with both his head and limbs - he almost seemed like a living fireball, mercilessly hunting down its target.

Bidoof was staring down a magby, who seemed intent to continue trying to beat up and burn Corphish, but Bidoof was having none of it, and heroically jumping the flames and striking magby viciously with huge buckteeth that into it's arm and he quickly threw this opponent against the wall. I wanted to clap and applaud Bidoof for this - I could see that he had come far in recent times. Back when I first joined, he was kind of useless, but now...I don't think I'd want to mess him him.

I found it hard to tell what Chimeco was doing, but she was causing the two slugma great pain - in fact, it seemed like she was using her psychic powers to try and pull their molten bodies apart. I didn't think it'd be lethal, since slugma lava had an uncanny ability to rejoin together if it should be separated from the main body. Eventually, this forced them into retreat, but this victory was rather short lived - seemingly out of nowhere, something lunged and attacked Bidoof with some sort of slashing attack, leaving quite a gash on it's poor body. I looked carefully, and it was a very pissed off looking charmeleon, clearly hearing us fighting and rushed in to protect his friends.

I inhaled, knowing that I had to do something here - I might need my friends to help me get home, after all, and before it could attack Bidoof again, I grabbed it with my vines, and focusing every ounce of strength in me, and all the mental ability I had to ignore the heat, pulled the charmeleon right at me with one focused tug before leaping at it, and striking it hard with both my head and tail leaf. It gave a bestial scream, and looked like it was about to try and incinerate me, before it yelled even louder in pain before running away, and the nearby surroundings were covered in steam. I could see an injured Bidoof, and an even more injured Corphish, holding one claw up, pointing it at where the charmeleon was. I looked around the rest of this 'room' in this cave network - they had all retreated, and we had won, and I was starting to wonder how lucky I was to have done this for a month without getting seriously injured.

"Did you save my ass with all that water there?" I asked Corphish, who just nodded weakly. I decided to drink some more water, constantly trying to stave off the dehydration.

"Oh no no no! I don't think he'll be able to go further! We should go back!" She said, looking at Corphish, even though she didn't look hurt at all. Bidoof grunted in pain as he slowly got to his feet - he could walk, but looked in no condition to fight, but Serge looked perfectly healthy. I thought for a bit, thinking selfish thoughts - Uxie was within reaching distance, I was surely on the home stretch from finding the answers!

"Say, I have an idea...how about you help Corphish and Bidoof outside of the cave and get the rest of the guild to come here, while myself and Serge go onwards? I promise, if we do make some grand discovery, you three will be credited accordingly." She didn't look like she thought much of the idea, and neither did the others, though their opinions didn't come off as strong. "Well, either way, I'm going further up anyway, you don't need me to escort you back outside at the base of this strange cave fountain lake thingy anyway." I said and started walking up. Perhaps it would have been safer to go back with them, but feeling how close I was to Uxie, I could not think of anything else. Even my personal safety took a back seat to the goal.

"Ugh, fine. Don't worry Corphish, I'll make sure you'll be OK, you ready Bidoof?" Chimeco said, sounding slightly annoyed. Bidoof nodded and Serge shrugged.

"...I'll be going with Floyd." Serge said and turned to walk with me, waving to the others as they went out of sight.

"So what made you come with me, eh?" I asked Serge in a friendly, happy manner. I was glad he was with me, as he was the only one I knew in this world that I could trust fairly deeply in.

"Didn't want to see you go off alone, haha. And besides, Chimeco can take care of them by herself just fine, and I'll be honest - the lure of the glory of being the ones who truly discover the fabled fogbound lake would be simply legendary. Think you'll find what you're looking for?" Serge happily said to me.

"It's all I've got right now really. I just hope Uxie will actually be there. To think though – the entity that granted mankind the capacity to know and remember so much! I should thank him first before asking anything, and so should you. Without him, you'd just be another savage, as would I." We never spoke much as we continued to climb up the weird chasms, and it began to get cooler. The cave got slightly damper and cooler as we got further up, which suited me nicely.

"Say, Floyd..." Serge said, sounding a little uncomfortable, and I looked round at him. "If Uxie does tell you what happened and how you'll get home...you going to leave right away and try and forget this place?" He said, and it struck a rather dissonant chord with me. I chewed my bottom lip for a few seconds.

"Yes, Serge I will be heading home and I will never be coming back, but I couldn't forget this world at all - some of the most dangerous and heart-pounding experiences in my whole life has happened in this world." I said, but Serge wasn't quite finished.

"It's just that...well, I can't tell now anymore why you do the things that you do." He said, making me feel uncomfortable, but I feel that it was time to bluntly remind him - I respected Serge, and lying to him in this case would be a sign of disrespect, as told to me by my lord and god, Dialga.

"Serge...something about me that you must understand - ever since I landed up in your world, everything I have done was pretty much for selfish reasons. What I am about to tell you will not be pretty - I feel as though you are a good friend of mine, and I won't forget about you, and wish you future success, happiness and well-being, but I have merely been using you as a means to my own ends. You were strong - I could use you as a form of protection in order to help me find the way home, and I am, and still doing, just that."

"Try to understand that returning home means everything to me. Everything. And everything was enough to completely take advantage of your kindness." I said and inhaled - I needed to tell him that, I felt a mounting pressure to tell him all this time, and I felt it was something that he should know - the truth. "I decided to tell you this, because I respect you enough to not hide information from you - would you not agree that it would be disrespectful to keep it a secret?" I said - Serge was looking like he was trying to decide what to say.

"Hrm...well, in an odd way...I kind have been doing the same. I mean, I found you when you were, to say, a fish just out of the water and asked for your help and to form an exploration team to help fulfil my own dreams. Wouldn't you say that was also a little selfish in hindsight? After all, you had no intention or desire to become an explorer, and I talked you into it, seeing that you could inspire confidence in me. So havn't we both been playing the same 'in it for our own ends' game? Still, I won't lie - I will miss you." He said, returning encouraging words

"And that's not just because Team Conviction will be reduced to just you after I leave? Look, I know replacing one of the founding members will be very hard, but...actually, you have enough experience now to go solo. Seriously, out of the group of five there, you were the best fighter by far!" I asked him, and chuckled slightly. I sure hope that he'll take my advice on going solo – sure I don't have much investment in Team Conviction becoming a great exploration team or anything, but it couldn't just have some scallywag replacing me like that!. "The cave started to get a little lighter - we must be getting close to the end of the tunnel by now."

"Well, I think you've been a very good person overall - hey, if Team Conviction disbands after you find they way home, well, we'll have discovering the legendary Fogbound Lake under our belts! And if you need help trying to follow Uxie's directions, I'll help you." Serge said, which I was truly grateful for.

"I don't think I'll ever forget you" I said and smiled, as the cave opened up into a plateau - we must be at the top, and the bright sky was now above our heads. The ground seemed to slope downwards slightly - perhaps the rain would land here and flow down and form the actual lake. We were on the outer rim of the fountain for sure now.

"Well, this plateau only leads in one direction Serge." I said and walked fairly briskly towards where I think the lake would be. There was a small rumble, which I felt at my feet - must have been the geyser shooting up - but I found out that it wasn't when I turned round to look.

"Odd..." I thought out loud to myself, but the rumbling continued, in short bursts, that seemed to come every two seconds in short bursts.

"What the fuck, this never happened in the cave!" I said to Serge before looking in the direction that he was looking at - something was moving for sure, but I could only see it in a strange heat haze. It was moving closer, that was for sure, and as it got even closer, I could see that it was big. Very, very big, and it seemed to be red and grey, it was hard to tell because it was so blurred. The tremors got more vicious as it continued moving towards us - no doubt it was causing them, which meant that it must be not just big, but utterly huge. My own heart rate quickened as it became close enough to tell roughly what it was. I saw Serge take a few steps back as I breathed through my teeth rapidly, now realising a possible reason why there was a stature of Groudon in the forest.

I looked at the colossal behemoth in front of me - it was as every bit as massive and terrifying as I would have imagined it to be - or at least it was from my shrunk body as it stared down at us. I wasn't sure whether it intended to kill us or not, but it certainly didn't look like it wanted to have a friendly discussion about the weather either. I teetered on my heels and toes and breathed deeply, trying to maintain my calm and not do anything out of panic. Groudon suddenly roared with extreme volume which sent me scuttling behind a rock with fear - it was bit enough to just step on me and kill me just like that! And yet, I could still sense courage inside me. Or it could just be the extreme will to find Uxie, or sheer and utter stupidity and recklessness, probably one of the two, and I knew that if I just turned back, I would be throwing away my only lead to return home.

Shaking, I got out from behind the rock and stared at him - this wasn't inspiring courage at all - it's huge claws on it's hands and feet, each the size of my entire body and the accusing stare that it gave me was completely draining any emotion from me other than fear, and it looked like it was indeed worthy of the legends of being the pokemon that created the land. And yet, this all made sense somehow - perhaps the reason I came here was a trial of some sort, to prove myself worthy of my human form, and this was the final test. Aside from Arceus, I had no idea who could have done this, but even Arceus seemed very unlikely - he was the lazy god who done nothing after the universe was made! The more I thought about it, the more it made my head spin. This was raw suicide, trying to oppose the one who pretty much created the land itself, not to mention I'd be extremely ungrateful to do so. Without Groudon, mankind would probably have never existed, and he likely does maintenance work to the land unlike Arceus.

"Floyd! We should go back and wait for the guild. We might stand a chance then, lets run!" Serge had the right idea, as we turned around and sprinted madly towards the cave, but a large boulder came flying right over our heads that Groudon threw, or perhaps even conjured and oh-so inconveniently blocked our escape.

"We'll never move that in time!" Serge said, showing signs of true fear in the first time in ages. I was even more terrified, and yet, I could not come to terms with death being a real possibility even upon looking at Groudon advancing upon us. Uxie was surely right behind him! No one was going to stop me from becoming human again! Nothing! Not even the creator of the land! Sure I was grateful for it's existence and work, but it had no reason whatsoever to try and stop me from being human again!

"Serge...there's pretty much one option here." I said, smiling - a rather fake smile, but it did represent the latent emotions of hope, courage and glory. "No one said discovering Fogbound Lake would be easy - and perhaps this is my last trial that has been set for me to return to a human form. And I am going to accept that challenge." If I could look at myself, I would kick myself for the sheer stupidity of me, and yet, this felt appropriate at the time. Serge tapped me on the shoulder.

"I'm with you all the way." He said as we both stared right into Groudon's eyes. There was nothing more to do now but to engage in quite possibly the most one-sided fight of both our lives.

And that's just what we did.


	10. The Sum Of All Efforts

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 10: The Sum Of All Efforts

What was going through my head? Was this a sign of madness? Me, trying to beat Groudon in a fight with only Serge supporting me? I guess returning home meant that much to me, as I was now in the process of throwing my life into mortal danger. Hell, even reasoning with it didn't occur to me at the time, although it looked like it was as civilized as a bloodthirsty barbarian, but my decision was made, and I had no plans to go back on it and change my mind. Just me, a little snivy - a mere third of my usual human height, and Serge, a little cyndaquil who's even smaller than I am, against the titanic Groudon, which was, at a rough guess, about twenty times my size at least. Groudon didn't seem to react for a few seconds, but then something started to stir - Groudon was now clearly doing something, and I quickly saw what it was.

"Run to the sides Serge!" I said as I saw it raising all manner of mud, dirt and rocks with it's might, forming a huge wave as he tried to bring it crashing down on us. I avoided the attack without bother considering it was pretty slow, but the less agile Serge only just managed to avoid the wall of death. Flames erupted from Serge's mouth as he shot them towards Groudon, who barely seemed to notice, but to be honest, I was kind of expecting that. I tried my efforts by staying back and cutting him with leaves from a safe distance, but it proved to be even more useless than Serge breathing fire on it.

"Any ideas on how to hurt it?" Serge called out to me, but I was at a complete loss, and felt like I was failing as a leader, breathing heavily out of anxiety more then exhaustion, the intense sunlight keeping my body charged with energy.

"Not at all, sadly." I said, sweating in fear as it roared as it went to try and slice and then impale me with its claws. I was thankful that it's massive bulk hindered its speed, making it easy to get out of the way, which I did just fine, and yet, I couldn't help but feel that I would get hit before sheer exhaustion would defeat it. But I guess it was something to bank on for the moment.

"Serge, just focus on avoiding it's attacks – if it hits you, then we're pretty much dead!" I called out, standing back and eyeing it closely. It seemed to hate me more as it lumbered towards me. This was extremely straining mentally, for I had three things to think about at once – avoiding it's attacks, figuring out a weakness, and controlling my own fear. I inhaled far more air than I needed to, and what my body would have normally done, hoping that the extra oxygen would keep me calm. I tried hitting it at range with cutting leaves now and then, but it barely even left a paper cut on it's armour, foolishly thinking something different would happen from last time. It seemed like the traditional Conviction flank was in flow, but Serge was having even less luck on harming it than I was in harming it now, but I had an idea that might at least to something.

"Err, try jumping onto it and using attacks at close range!" I yelled, dodging a torrent of mud and earth which it spewed from Groudon's mouth, almost reshaping the plateau that we were fighting on. I didn't know if my idea would work, but it was damn well worth a shot, and Serge did manage to get on it's back. Keeping the traditional 'Conviction flank' in place, I continued to focus all my efforts in trying to avoiding anything and everything it tried to throw at me. I could almost feel faint out of the sheer nervousness and concentration I threw into every reaction and swift, sudden movements to avoid extreme injury or worse. I heard Groudon make strange roars that almost took my to the ground with it's crippling volume that would suggest pain now and then – perhaps Serge was succeeding in doing something to it.

"Keep it up Serge! You're doing something at least!" I yelled, ever so narrowly dodging another wave of earth and mud – Groudon was starting to see my dodging patters, and perhaps even a beast like him was starting to adapt – I knew I couldn't keep this up forever – Serge had to actually be injuring the colossal beast, or we'd be fucked.

"Floyd...I'm causing him pain I think, but..." Serge said, continuing to blast him with point-blank range streams of fire, which were now causing Groudon to roar in either pain or anger; possiblyboth, but he now diverted his attention on him – easier said than done, since Serge was on his back, and he couldn't reach round to throw him off. This was excellent! Serge was at a safe spot, and could cause some damage to this titan, but Groudon had other ideas – the whole place seemed to start getting a little hotter, and Serge suddenly yelled in pain.

"AAAYYIIIEE!" He yelled and was somehow forced to jump off, landing awkwardly, but keeping his balance. I didn't know what was going on, but apparently Serge did, and boy, did he look fearful.

"Behind cover! Now!" I was suddenly even more alert than I already was – and I guess it was very lucky there was cover in the form of a large boulder within easy reaching distance for me – but for Serge, I wasn't too sure. Groudon was clearly about to do something big, and it called for a brief moment of heroism on my part. Looking at Serge in the eye, I shot both my vines at him and grabbed him around the middle and hauled him behind the boulder with everything I had. I was already safely behind it by this point, but at that crucial moment, Groudon roared so loudly it anything I could hear to a loud painful ring before I felt a gigantic wave of heat that would have caused me to pass out or even outright death if I was not behind cover – that being said, Serge was a little too late, but he fell into place beside me to avoid the worst of it.

"Yow!" Serge said as I saw fiery wind pass over us that mildly singed him as I pulled him behind. It could well have incinerated me if it weren't for the rock we were hiding behind, but my ears and head were still recovering from the blast of volume they had to endure. The attack looked like it had taken something out of Groudon, and looked like it had taken a lot of energy to perform an indiscriminate all-round attack of that magnitude. Taken in by aggressive feelings I leapt at Groudon, twisting around and striking him hard with both leaves at once – his armour felt a bit softer than usual, and it felt like it might have at least left a scratch instead of absolutely nothing – this was progress! The heat from the attack might have even hurt Groudon himself.

"To your left, Floyd!" I heard Serge yell, as Groudon tried swiping at me with his right hand. I had no time to dodge this and all I could do was meet it head on. In a hopeless one-sided attempt to defend myself, I went to try and use leaf blade defensively on the claws itself. I landed a blow using my tail leaf to protect my body, but as expected, it did nothing, and I was sent flying back in the air from the sheer force of the slash attack itself. I landed in a very awkward and painful way, unable to land correctly on the ground after the impact on the deflected swipe of his giant claws. Serge did a good job of taking the initiative and showed to me, Groudon and even perhaps himself that he could be very agile when he needed to be, and did many controlled dive-rolls to avoid being stomped on, and always counter-attacked with flame-thrower to try and throw Groudon off balance – and it seemed to be working fairly well – Groudon did seem to soften up after the massive fiery attack he did earlier, seemed to be more susceptible to our small assaults which had now at least become an annoyance to him.

Wanting to help Serge, I slowly got to my feet, ignoring the large cut on my right leg from my terrible landing and looked for an opening – Serge was doing a better job than I was of being the distraction - he was able to fight back as well, or maybe he was just being a bit more aggressive than I was. I guess I could try being more subtle about landing on Groudon's back this time – this I did, and I jumped up a fair hight, but landed as softly as possible on my hands and feet and gingerly climbed up his back – it wasn't difficult at all, and his 'skin' had cooled down, so I wasn't in any real pain from that at least. As for my leg, it was in great pain, even with blood occasionally dripping on Groudon himself. Slicing in between the groves on Groudon's armour could be effective, but Groudon would surely take note of that over Serge, who was consistently dodging everything Groudon threw at him. Perhaps a prolonged life-draining attack would help tire Groudon out a bit faster and wouldn't be noticeable over Serge's efforts, and that's just what I done. My hands glows green as they started absorbing Groudon's energy, and I could feel a prickling in my right leg that wasn't there before, as the wound started healing up.

The leaf on my head and the leaf on my tail both automatically turned to face the harsh sun to take up the intense light, and I could feel both the energy I was stealing from Groudon and the sun starting to build up inside of me, and it caused me to hyper-ventilate as if I had an overdose of caffeine, and yet, I feel as though I needed more energy to help exhaust Groudon and focused the uptake of the absorb so much that the green glow started spreading up my arms, dramatically absorbing more energy from him. I was seriously hoping my heart wouldn't explode right now! This advanced energy draining technique I had discovered was filling my body with copious amounts of energy and power, and all this time, Groudon was still focused on Serge, as he was tormented with his efforts failing, and being answered with torrents of flames. He only became more sluggish over time as his energy levels were starting to diminish to my draining and his own attacks as I had no choice but to keep going, in spite of the protests from my own body.

I started shaking wildly I had absorbed so much of his energy – I don't think my body could take much more of it, and at the same time, there was a nagging instinct within me – but how could I throw all the energy back at Groudon? I almost screamed because it was now becoming too much to handle, and I could feel my body starting to dry up from all the sweating in the intense heat, and from all the violent shaking my body was now forcing itself to do. And it only got worse – Serge had managed to jump a deadly wave of earth, only to be hit by mud shot from Groudon's mouth – the chocked scream he let loose was worse than screeching violins to me, because it signalled that the friend who has supported me through the most harrowing month of my life was in deep shit, and that we wouldn't last much longer unless something spectacular happened. Serge was half buried in the mud and earth, but not even that was going to stop him as he desperately climbed back on top of it, but he looked quite weakened by the attack. The instincts ran through my mind again, a lot stronger than before this time, and it gave me quite possibly the most awesome idea I have had since arriving in this world.

I screamed loudly to give Serge a chance to get to safety from Groudon and distract Groudon so that the attention was on me and used the copious amounts of energy I had within my body to jump seemingly several meters in the air, and I couldn't tell whether the cast amount of energy I had, or if it was all in the head, but something seemed to make everything else move slower, or that it was pure imagination, but the world seemed to only be moving at a quarter of the speed that it used to be. Looking down at Groudon who was turning to face me in the air, I leaned forward slightly so that I was almost above him and pointed my body down at him. Instinct was a great instructor on what to do much to my own disgust against my lords teachings, and it guided me to line up my leaves so that they were both facing Groudon and now, everything was aligned – the sun, the tail leaf, the head lead, and Groudon.

I did as instinct told me and managed to send all the energy I had taken from Groudon and the sun to my leaves, and in a spectacular display, shot it all right back at Groudon in a bright, devastating beam of destruction. I was far to amazed at what I was doing so give a bad-ass one-liner at the devastating attack I had just given out as the destructive beam of light continued to blast him. I couldn't even scream in aggression I was that in awe, but as for Groudon, he was sure screaming alright – in complete agony. My attack was charged to such a ridiculous extent that it sent Groudon right on it's back as it continued to be fried by my efforts. Eventually, the stolen energy had ran out within my body, as I eventually fell down right on top of Groudon – this time landing with optimal precision so I wouldn't hurt myself. Groudon wasn't moving, and although he certainly wasn't dead, but he would not be getting up soon after an attack like that.

"Serge...did we just fucking beat Groudon in direct combat?!" I said, looking at his face while standing triumphantly on his unconscious body. We had won the battle alight, and the surge of exhilaration was deeply satisfying in the highest meaning, so much so I didn't even berate myself for enjoying something I really shouldn't have.

"We sure did...!" Serge said, a very broad smile on his face, and his eyes were wider than usual, wiping the dirt off him, and went to inspect Groudon in great detail. "Definitely out cold...if you don't mind me asking, how on earth did you do that?!"

"Absorbed his energy and sunlight for a good few minutes without him even noticing and threw it all back at him in one blow. Honourable? Not really, but who gives a shit, eh? To be honest, I'm really amazed how I got out of this without something nasty happening to me." I said, shrugging, yet I was troubled somehow. Raw animalistic instincts cloud a civilized mind, the root of much evil in the world and Dialga time and time again warns us about the dangers of giving into them. Yet they undoubtedly pulled through for me, allowing me to pull through against the odds which were ridiculously stacked against me.

I was clearly very competent at being a pokemon, but this thought brought out more disgust in myself – I was human! It's who I was born as, what I was surely meant to be! The idea of Palkianism being true and accurate didn't sit well with me at all to begin with, but what if, during any blanks of my memory, I converted, but not only that, but sufficiently impressed Palkia. Absolute crap! I have self respect and moral standings! Though perhaps if he had a sadistic sense of humour, living here would be a viable punishment for turning away from the true lord. Well, Dialga – if I did upset you in any way, can you please take note on what I just did to help these pokemon, and with the discovery of Uxie, I will have surely completed my penance. Not that Dialga actively intervenes with out fate anyway after promising us – still, if this is some sick joke by Palkia, then I can give him the one-fingered salute as I am surely about to void my own punishment! Voiced could be heard by the blocked entrance to the spiralling cave that lead up to the plateau that we were standing on, and they seemed very familiar.

"Think it's the guild? Quickly, stand on top of Groudon beside me and do a bad-ass victory pose!" I said and looked into the sky and held my right arm up high, while Serge just did a very basic 'yay for us!' sort of pose as the guild managed to get rid of the boulder and ran through.

"We're coming for ya!" Corphish yelled and ran towards us but suddenly stopped "Wait...it was GROUDON that was roaring! And they took him out by THEIRSELVES?! What the fuck?!" The rest of the guild, even Chatot looked incredibly impressed at what we had done. Oh, the looks on their faces! It just keeps getting better!

"Hehe, typical for you to show up just after we had done all the work" I smirked smugly at them. "Well then, shall we go to the lake then and have a look?" I said, strutting ahead of them like I was in charge of the expedition myself. I didn't receive any objections to my sudden full-of-my-self attitude as we walked in a big group down to the lake.

"I guess you cut our expedition short then." Chatot said to me sounding stern, but then, he actually smiled, believe it or not. "Well, we had planned to look for it for a few days but thanks to you, we did in in our first day – whether I like you or not, I'm impressed." He said and nodded and I could now gaze upon the lake's magnificence.

The tranquillity of it all was an overwhelmingly pleasant contrast to the violent fight against Groudon, and the water rippled only very slightly against the rocky bank. Dozens of fireflies illuminated the lake like a light show, and the larger volbeat and illumise who seemed to make their residence here provided and even bigger range of colours and lights – the sky seemed to have got suddenly darker – the battle must have raged on for a lot longer than I had expected then, but this only helped me to appreciate the beauty of the lake. But I was not here for the lake, as pretty as it was, I was here for Uxie, the being of knowledge, the one who could provide me with the answers.

"By golly, do you think Uxie exists and will wipe our memory? It'd be a real shame to forget an experience like this, yup yup." He said, looking around – I was about to say 'I hope so', but it wouldn't be good timing. But something did show up, a one-of-a-kind, almost ethereal being created by Arceus personally, and the being that had gifted humans with the ability to solve problems, allowing them to transcend the animalistic natures that separated them from the beasts. He looked quite different than what I imagined, taking on much more of a corporeal form than described in the religious texts didn't look all that impressive, but he had a sort of aura, if you like, that really did show that he was someone of great significance in vastly different ways to say, royalty. My heart rate quickened – this was indeed the one I had been hoping to see – no mistaking it – it was most definitely Uxie himself. This kind of sighting would surely make me famous would wide back home, but I could make do with just getting answers for him. The dreamy, yet alert vibe from Uxie, hovering in front of us, put me on full alert – the time was surely now.

"...So you were not deterred by the Groudon avatar...hmm...I should wipe all of your memories about the lake right here and now. The secrets guarded here are much to great to ever be released." He said in a fairly distant voice that kind of unsettled me, but Wigglytuff seemed completely undeterred.

"Oh, these are my friends! And they won't do any harm, we promise, right?" He said, looking at us, and we nodded in agreement.

"...Very well...as I said, the Groudon that you fought wasn't the real one – it was a defence avatar I used to protect this lake." Uxie said – his eyes seemed to be shut all the time, and yet, I could somehow tell that he could see us all perfectly clearly – it was completely surreal seeing a being only described in religious texts, supposedly only seen by the first enlightened men according to the doctrine of Arceus, but I was always very sceptical about what went in those books that promote the word of Arceus – there's a vast sea of lies in there, that was for sure.

"I assure you that the worst that the Groudon avatar would have done is cause moderate injury." Serge and I seemed to be almost offended by the idea – our lives were surely in mortal danger then! He had better have a very, very good reason to keep this utterly divine natural landmark hidden.

"Something that big could have easily killed us by accident, and what's so precious about this lake as well?" Serge asked, still being as polite as possible – I didn't want to know what this personal creation of Arceus could do, and I knew it could at least summon avatars of legendary pokemon and wipe memories, and it'd also ruin my chances of getting answers from him. Who knows what this entity, old as mankind itself, was capable of. "What's up with you going so out of your way just to protect a natural beauty from those who really just want to see it and take in the views."

"...So you are just explorers then. I apologize, but one can't be too careful – any pokemon in this world has the potential to be a thief." Uxie said, 'looking' at each and every one of us – it was impossible to tell the look that he was giving us, which kind of bothered me. I felt the need to try and understand others, but Uxie was pretty much a brick wall to my understanding, but then again, I wasn't expecting much difference.

"Trying to protect valuable treasure?" Chatot asked, hopping to the front of the group. Uxie paused for a moment and said.

"...You must first promise to tell no one of this place – what is hidden here is far to important to the world itself to ever be discovered by those with evil intent. Look in the dead centre of the lake." Uxie told us, and we all stared together – there was something in the water, and it seemed to shine with a green glow, with unnatural lights that seemed to flow around the object. In the dead centre of the glow, I could see that it was blue, but due to the rippling waters, I couldn't make out any details at all, but there was something about it that made me stare constantly, and hungrily at this mysterious object, and it was causing me to not just want it, but feel as though I needed it. With peripheral vision, I could see that I was the only one who was mesmerized by this object, which made me a little self conscience.

"It's one of the three time gears, perhaps you have heard of them." Uxie said, as I thought back to the magazine article and the words in my own faith. I was now sure that it was not mere symbolism that the religion had told me about – I was now indeed staring at a real, physical time gear, hovering with nobility and purpose in the water – it was indeed a location for such a precious artifact – such a well hidden place, protected by the entity of knowledge itself, behind a Groudon avatar, in a hidden lake which could only be seen from what must have been another defence mechanism, the fog and the statue.

And yet I could not understand the want and need, deep within the twisting corridors of my subconscious to jump into the water to swim and take it. How dare I think such things! Surely doing that would tamper with the flow of time, and I would be defiling the god that I have worshipped devoutly since the day I was born, and would perhaps bring utterly grave consequences to all! Perhaps it was just all the emotions...

"Dialga visited me in a dream, to ask me to do everything within my power to protect the time gear some time ago, and seeing that task of bestowing humankind with the power of knowledge was done, I have been grateful that I can serve the world once more – such things as time gears needs to be guarded and hidden with the utmost care." Uxie said, explaining the situation, and I was amazed – Dialga himself visited Uxie in a dream to ask him to do this?! I had complete trust in Uxie for this – I didn't really have doubts in a being such as him. But having contact with the lord himself?! I felt myself being pulled more and more into the importance of this discovery.

It now feels that now, more than ever, even in the face of being dimensions away from the nearest Dialgan church and book, felt closer to Dialga and his righteous presence than I had ever been before – I touched the sacred water that the time gear rested in, and while I could not tell whether it was a genuine religious experience or not, felt my moral compass become clarified and purified within me. I must have zoned out of awareness, for I was knocked back into it by Serge, and he chuckled.

"Heh, you seem particularly fascinated by the time gear." He said to me, but while I was knocked out of the somewhat self-induced trance, the hunger for that time gear remained, and my heart rate quickened the longer I looked at it.

"...You might as well enjoy what you're about to see." Uxie said, and instructed us to look just above the time gear. We couldn't see anything initially, but we did soon see the waters seem to rumble, before erupting in a gigantic display of water. The light from the time gear made the erupting natural water fountain shine with many dazzling different colours, mainly consisting of blues, greens, and even the occasional shade of purple. The fireflies, volbeat and illumise completed quite possible the most beautiful natural image brought to my eyes. The rest of the guild looked stunned as well.

"Treasure enough for me..." Loudred said, being a lot quieter than usual, sitting back and merely observing. I noticed that Team Skull was missing – good, those cunts are outright unworthy to set foot near such holy ground! I wasn't sure how long we stayed there, but it must have been for half an hour, before Wigglytuff finally called the guild to leave.

"OK friends! It's time for us to say goodbye and head back to base camp – the day after, you get thee days off for finding everything we need to know about fogbound lake in one day, yippee! But remember, no telling anyone – if someone asks you, the expedition was a complete failure, understood?" Wigglytuff seemed to be taking more responsibilities than normal – perhaps he realised that now was a time to be serious with the time gear and all, but no matter what the guild says, I'd be staying behind with Uxie to find out everything I need to know – the answers were upon me now. Serge clearly saw what I was after, and didn't move with the guild, staying by my side.

"We'll be a few minutes if that's OK" Serge called back, and Wigglytuff just looked behind and nodded.

"Well, you have shown that you can defend yourselves very well, just catch up with is when you can, see you then!" He said cheerfully before heading back to the front of the group – now, the time was here. I looked at Uxie and inhaled deeply.

"...I wasn't here for the exploration, or the time gear." I said flatly, as Uxie looked at me. "I was here for you, for I have many, many important questions regarding what happened to me."

"Oh...? Well, speak then." Uxie said, hovering in front of me, listening.

"As the being of knowledge, I hope you could help me. I have...only been a pokemon for just over a month, and I was a human before this, and my memories seemed to have been corrupted somewhat. I desire nothing more than to return to the human world as a human. Do you think you could help me...?" I asked, and waited with a chest full of air – I was so tense now that I couldn't even breathe. The moment of discovering the truth was right on me now – I could be mere days, even hours away from getting back to the good old life I used to have. And now...

Uxie 'looked' at me with curiosity, as if he was trying to figure out what happened – but surely an all-knowing being wouldn't have to do such a thing. "Wait...so you came into this world from the human one, and became a pokemon? ...That is not unheard of, Palkia must have done it." I was about to explode in anger – another god that not only strays people from Dialga, but also interferes with my life without me knowing?! However, I was cut short by Uxie continuing to speak. "If you are aware of the religion in the human world, Palkians believe – correctly – that if you please him enough in your human life, you can be reborn as a pokemon based on the soul that resides within you, humans souls not even existing – you sure that didn't happen to you?"

"...Surely not, I was a devout Dialgan, and faith in his ways is a requirement, is it not? I have heard many things about the Palkian faith, including the whole soul pokemon shit, but even if it were all true, I'd never qualify for a rebirth." I said, and it almost felt like my brain was vibrating in my head from all the possibilities. Uxie looked like he was in some thought.

"Humans on extremely rare occasions have accidentally found their way in this world – I met three over a hundred years ago, but they retained their human form, but as far as I know, that's the only two ways that humans have entered this world – perhaps you fell through I dimension hole of some sort, but I can't explain how you got turned into a pokemon if you did not follow Palkia, I'm sorry." A realisation began to dawn on me – Uxie wasn't all knowing after all – did I really just assume that just because someone gave humans the capacity of knowledge, that they would be all knowing? But I had to verify this, I had to cling onto all the hope that remained.

"...But I thought you were all knowing Uxie." I said, breathing heavily, containing my emotions regarding the situation, not even caring that Uxie was pretty much confirming that the pokemon soul aspect of Palkianism was true and accurate.

"Unfortunately, I'm not – I know a good deal, and I am incapable of forgetting even the tiniest fragments of knowledge, but I really have not heard of an incident like this, which is only backed up by having most of your human memories in tact – when a successful Palkian is reborn as a pokemon, I'm pretty sure their memories die with their human body, so I can at least be sure it wasn't him, not to mention the fact they all come into this world as newborns. Unfortunately, I can't say I can really help you with this any more, I've told you all I know about it." I wasn't going to take this at all – not after all I had done to get here! He had to be able to provide me with SOMETHING that could help me!

"Ok then, do you know anyone who might know anything about this then? Because it surely didn't happen without a cause – someone must know SOMETHING, surely! I'm begging you, please, help me!" I said, raising my voice, my breathing becoming almost as heavy as when I was fighting Groudon. Uxie still seemed sympathetic and wanted to help, but all she could come out with was to me, a stupid suggestion.

"Giratina, but that's it I'm afraid." Well, that was so useful! Giratina! How in the fucking world was I supposed to find him?! And even if I could – asking that evil monstrosity for help?! He'd either kill me, refuse and torment me, or at the very least refuse to help me, but I would have scarred any sense of my own morality asking him for help!

"Giratina...nope, can't do that." I said, and I came to the true realisation that I had worked my way to earn a spot in the expedition, figured out the secret of Fogbound Lake and took down a fucking groudon avatar in the most spectacular fashion...for absolutely nothing! It had all been an entire waste of effort and time! To think I was foolish enough to think so wishfully to think that this would be my salvation from this hell hole! I contained my despair for Uxie's sake – he did at least try to help, so I couldn't blame him.

"...Very well, that's all I need to know. Goodbye, and good luck guarding the time gear" I said, some of my sadness slipping out. "Oh, and thank you, on behalf of the ignorant guild, for providing us with the capacity to absorb knowledge. As miserable as I feel now Uxie, I can at least thank you for elevating us past savagery and primal instinct." Uxie merely nodded and possibly smiled slightly, as if it was the first time someone had thanked him face to face, as I gestured Serge to follow me back to the base camp – and that's when I poured it all onto him.

"...Well, THAT was a waste of my fucking time! What the hell did I do all that for?! Everything I've worked for and 'achieved' in the expedition – it answered me pretty much nothing, and only left me with more fucking questions!" The tone on which I spoke in oozed sadness, but most of all, severe disappointment. I hated many things, and one of the things I hated most was going to great lengths and efforts to try and do something, and getting almost nothing out of it at the end, and this, by far, was the biggest example I had come across in my life. I glanced at Serge from the corner of my eye – he sure looked like he wanted to try to say something to help, but it didn't seem like he could think of anything genuine to say. The walk back to camp was extremely uneventful – it might be a trashy theory, but perhaps the wild ones were leaving us alone since they somehow knew that we took out Groudon, or at least a fake one, and that we weren't to be fucked with. But what use was all of that when I ultimately gained nothing.

"Floyd..." Serge said, to me "...Surely there was something that was good that came out of the expedition for you – I mean, the expedition might have failed without you, or at least not have succeeded as quickly." He explained to me as we walked back into the damp, almost marshy forest.

"Suppose...but what did it achieve for me? Nothing that mattered, that's for sure! And it only left me with even more questions, some of them, I'd rather keep to myself." I said bitterly – I guess he'd think there would really be something wrong with me if I told him that I had latent urges to grab that time gear when I was up there – perhaps it was because I have a human mind, or whatever – yes, that would likely be the case. Not to mention my views on the world and it's creation and existence were challenged and confirmed – Uxie really did give my kind the capacity to have knowledge, and Mespirit and Azelf with emotions and willpower respectively. There is no reward that is equal to knowledge...if only I could believe that. My friends and family now seemed a lot further away than before, as the only lead I had on seeing them again was lost.

"Serge, I'm just going to spend the whole night praying to Dialga – perhaps he can give me the necessary comfort from all this..." I said muttering to him, and myself. It was hard to tell what Serge was thinking when I continued rambling on about the situation, and it became harder to tell whether he was getting annoyed or not.

"...I mean, my friends, and family..." I continued to go on, and on, and then, that's when Serge raised his voice.

"Look, Floyd, you should be grateful for what you achieved – you made one of the biggest discoveries in this exploration community in months!" Serge said, sounding ever so slightly annoyed. "You've been making a successful career here, and that's not enough for you?" I suddenly stopped walking here and turned to face him.

"I made one thing very clear from the very moment you introduced me to the sheer concept of this pokemon exploration shit – all my efforts go towards me getting home, and nothing else matters. Nothing!" I said staring fairly harshly at him. "I cannot even comprehend what I risked doing this, and I could have very well died! Barely any risk of that on a daily basis back in the better world!"

"And you don't think it's selfish at all? Or is it just 'me, me, me' to you?" I inhaled fairly deeply here.

"Selfish? What about my friends and family? Surely they'd be worried sick about me! You trying to say they don't matter?" I said, raising my voice slightly.

"Or are you just using them as an excuse to justify your selfish reasoning – am I not important to you as well, or your guild mates for that matter?" Serge said – it seemed like he was finally cracking slightly, but I decided not to stop there.

"I aim for what I damn well please, Serge. Look, you're a very nice guy, but in the grand scheme of things, you're not going to matter that much to me – after I'm gone, I'll never see you again, not that I'd ever want to come back to this world anyway." Serge sighed sadly, and raised his hand.

"I guess that's what makes us imbalanced – I care about you, but as far as I can tell, you don't really give a damn about me. And that's just not very good – I mean, one could argue I wanted you to help me for my own ends, but at least I cared about you. And what's so fantastic about this Dialga anyway?" He said, sounding disappointed. I really did not like what Serge said at all, and I visibly showed it, especially of his bad-mouthing of Dialga.

"...Actually, let's just drop the conversation, It's only going to get worse from here – long story short, I'm still going to help you, OK? Your folks back home are obviously very important to you..." He said – it was hard to tell if there was a tone of bitterness in his voice, or what he was really thinking. I guess I was being a bit of a selfish prick to him, and whining about how he wouldn't understand, even though I doubt he does, would make me look pathetic.

"...Thanks..." I said in a flat monotone, and that was the last we spoke to each other that night. It was a strange thing, since myself and Serge were always pretty talkative to each other. I guess I really did feel empty now – I lost my only lead, and treated my only close friend I could now contact badly. I just sure as hell hope he can forgive me for it. Upon arriving at the camp, the guild was rather talkative, and it's members looked absolutely shattered, but the constant conversation meant that no one was sleeping.

"Excuse me Wigglytuff" I overheard Dugtrio say. "But what happened to Team Skull? I forgot to ask." I saw Wigglytuff smile in a most strange way – it was hard to tell whether he was happy or pissed off, which baffled me.

"Let's just say that they weren't friendly friends...unlike you." He said and then gave a wide, fully genuine smile. I imagined that perhaps when Wigglytuff ran off in search of his apple, he encountered Team Skull, who showed their true colours, and Wigglytuff gave them justice. Or I could have been making shit up for all I know, but nevertheless, I kind of gained a bit of respect for the guild master – such crimes shouldn't go unpunished, as Dialga has told me, otherwise, they'll just keep up the immoral acts, seeing they can get away scot-free with them.

I never said a word to anyone as I went to sleep inside the tent, and I just lied down and gave a long hard think about the days events – surely, they'll be another way. Not like I had a choice in the matter really, but I needed to stay in the guild. Hell, another lead might be just around the corner for all I know, and a slim hope like that was worth holding onto. But nevertheless, the disappointment and time wasting expedition still bothered me. I could question the ins and outs of the scenario to myself for weeks on end, and I was going to at least try and put the past behind me, but that would be far easier said than done as I drifted off into an uncomfortable sleep.

Morning came, as the sun woke me up, shining it's rays inside the tent that Serge forgot to close, praying my eyes open. Only a couple of guild members were up – Loudred and Diglett, speaking fairly quietly to one another, which was really strange seeing coming from Loudred.

"Hey Floyd..." Loudred said, cooking some food on a camp fire that he must have put together with great skill to get it going in these conditions. He sighed and looked at me.

"I...kind of want to apologize about being a shitbag towards you – I guess you're no real parasite after all. I mean, you just about done the expedition for us. Never expected that at all, so for what it's worth, I'll leave you alone." He said with genuine kindness in his voice – while it sounded genuine enough, it seemed to be purely based on the fact that I had got good at this exploring thing, and being liked for a mere skill on its own felt a little hollow. Still, if this means he was going to lay off me for a bit, then I'd be more than happy. I hope Chatot will view me in the same way.

"...That's cool man." I said, and ate some food with him, as others came out to join us – sure, his camp fire cooking was not a quarter as good as Chimeco's guild cooking, but I'll take it. Eventually after everyone was up, Chatot rallied the guild's attention once more.

"OK, since the expedition is ending prematurely – for the best possible reasons, might I add, there's going to be an extended holiday for you all. Just do whatever you like for the next four days, do jobs on the assignment board if you want to get some extra money, but we're not going to get anal about it if you decide to lie in for the next few days. Also, may I ask how many are not going straight back to treasure town?" He asked. Serge and Croagunk put up their hands.

"I'm going to visit my parents, In Chaud town". Croagunk seemed to give off that creepy, yet funny laugh again.

"Meh heh, going to see my uncle there as well." He said. I thought for a second – should I go with Serge, or go back to the guild. Maybe I can straighten things out with Serge if I go with him...

"I'll go with Serge for the time being." I said to Chatot, not really considering Serge's opinion on the matter. But more importantly than that, I needed to get away from the guild headquarters – I needed a break fast, and this seemed to be the perfect excuse. Serge looked at me with slight surprise, but I think even he could have seen it coming to some degree.

"Very well, that's three, we still have more than enough people to carry the equipment back to the guild. Those returning, are obviously obliged to help, guild out!" He said and dismissed us.

"Any reason why you wanted to go with me?" Serge said curiously.

"Wanted to get away from the guild for a bit to be honest. You're not still pissed me are you?" I asked.

"Not really..." Serge said – I could tell he was still a little annoyed, so I decided to just stay quiet. Croagunk was always a bit of a loner to an extent, and decided to make his own way to Chaud town.

"Should be just a few hours walk from here..." Serge said, being more business like than usual. "Just move to the path here, follow it, and we'll get there easily." I followed Serge in what was the most uneventful hours of my time here. Quite literally nothing happened – we barely traded words to each other, and there were no wild pokemon attacking us at all, of which I was thankful with – I had grown tired of all this fighting – in fact, I was sick of it all. The path we took through the valley was beautiful though – the sunbeams shot through the occasional break in the clouds, lighting up little patches here and there of the grand valley. Green grass covered the bottom half, with lilac flower patches here and there, in contrast to the rocky tops of the mountains. A few rattatas walked through the grass here and there, but they left us alone. It was sure pleasant for my eyes, I could say that much.

"Beautiful, 'ain't it." I said calmly to Serge.

"Yeah..." He said back and looked at me. "Look, I am still finding it tricky to overlook your selfishness, I'm sorry. I'm sure time will patch it over though." He said, and I honestly agreed to him – he had ever right to be pissed at me, but I was sure it'd be forgotten in a few days – pretty much all disagreements with my friends in the past went like this. As we left the valley, Chaud town came into sight across a fairly long plain. It looked a bit bigger, and far more welcoming – a great sight compared to the almost militaristic Treasure Town. I would have applied for work there instead, if it weren't for the fact that being in the guild was far more likely to give me leads to the answers I'm looking for. The town contained far fewer building built in the image of their owner, and overall, it was a town I could identify far more with – seemed more like a human town.

"OK, Floyd, I'd rather see my parents alone for a bit if that's OK with you. Just for the first couple of hours and stuff – it's nothing against you, don't worry – just go walk around and see the rest of the town if you'd like – you seem like you like what you see anyway." He said to me and walked into his house, which it wasn't very big, and seemed to be built with some fairly medieval brick laying. Still, it looked slightly better in quality of the buildings in Treasure Town. I decided to do as Serge said and have a wander around – the town centre market was incredibly busy, the smaller pokemon looking quite scared, dodging the feet of the bigger ones – I had to do the same as well.

"Fresh new revolutionary rolls! Get some here!" One of the merchants yelled from his wooden stall with some rather disgusting looking rolls on display – I could have expected as much from a Toxicroak.

"Meh heh, that's Floyd from the guild Uncle Toxicroak." It would seem that it was Croagunk, but his uncle merely just saw me as a potential customer.

"Hey, Snivy, you must have come from a long way – care to buy some peppered seaweed rolls?" He said, thrusting one in my face – it didn't smell nice at all, but I had to be polite somehow.

"I'm really short on money, sorry." I said and walked off – I was kind of rubbed the wrong way by his pushiness and him ignoring his nephew by the fact that we both worked at the Wigglytuff Guild. Upon leaving the busier parts of town, I walked into a fairly plain and run down park – there was a fairly eroded wooden bench on which I sat on, which was surprisingly not uncomfortable at all and just sat down, sighing.

"Hey there young 'un, mind if I sit here?" An elderly one said – turned out it was an armaldo – the thought of an extinct hunter like an armaldo being a friendly old man was quite funny to me, but I didn't show it.

"Uh, sure". I said and made room for him. He sat back, eating a bagel slowly, and he turned to look at me.

"So what do you do with yourself young man?" He said – I could see the slightly weathered rock skin on him, which seemed to function very similar to an elderly person's wrinkles – another similarity we shared, and 'feathers' on the side of his neck seemed to sag a little. I still didn't want to get on the wrong end of his pincer-claws though – they sill looked like they could impale someone.

"I work as an explorer in the Wigglytuff guild." I told him "Do you have a name, or do you just want me to call you Armaldo?"

"Well, it's often a sign of respect on this continent to call each other by our species name – I have a name, but we don't know each other, so Armaldo will do. Wait...the Wigglytuff guild eh...?" He said and smiled slightly "Oh, that Wigglytuff – he's quite something, isn't he Snivy?"

"Please, call me Floyd" I told him politely.

"Ah, if you insist. Anyway, I knew Wigglytuff since he was a tiny boy, an igglybuff, even...mind listening to an old man ramble?" He asked, aware that he could go on and on talking about something for ages, making the listener potentially bored, but I was up for a good story.

"No, go on Armaldo." I said, and he started talking.

"Well, he was about seven years old at the time, and I was in my young thirties...yes...and he ended up finding me in the cave in which I lived." He said.

"Why'd you live in a cave?" I asked. "Seems horribly compared to these houses."

"Well, the truth was, that I was a wanted criminal at the time – back then, I became somewhat disillusioned with exploring, so I turned to crime to get the money I desired – I must have made a total of fifty violent muggings before I was caught and arrested, but I'll get to that soon – but I never committed any rape or murder, I can say that at least, unlike some scumbag filth you see in prison. Anyway, in spite of me developing a false rumour that I hate people who came near the cave, Igglybuff the fearless wasn't remotely afraid of me – at the time, he was so very curious about exploring, and I did want to help the guy out."

"By this time, I had grown guilty of all the muggings I made, but I still didn't want to get punished for it, oh no. Eventually, after Igglybuff actually helped me solve a map problem that I had, which was a little embarrassing I admit, he convinced me to go looking for the treasure together – it was a very peculiar orb of some sort that we set our sights on. I kept it initially, but gave it to Igglybuff just before I was found and arrested. However, as we continued exploring and looking for treasure together, my cover was eventually blown, and I was tracked down by Agent Nidoking and Officer Magnezone, who I believe still works as the officer, actually – he must be getting old, if he ages that is."

"And just after a triumphant discovery by the both of us, which we believe was the ruins of some ancient civilization that to this day, are rumoured to have been those mythical human beings that mysteriously vanished a long long time ago, but I've no idea if it was true or not, perhaps maybe some ancient pokemon. Sadly, we were tracked down caught. If I didn't stop Igglybuff, he probably would have severely maimed Nidoking, Magnezone and the two deputy magnetites – he was mighty strong, even then. I told him to keep up with the exploring as I was taken off, which he did, and became one of the best in the world – when I was let out of jail twelve years later, he was already a wigglytuff, and I just couldn't keep up with him, haha. But even to this day, he calls me 'Master Armaldo.'" Now I don't know if he was making the whole story up or not to impress me, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. "And if you don't believe me, ask Wigglytuff himself."

"Sure thing" I said – I wasn't massively enthusiastic about what the elderly pokemon had to say, but it was interesting nonetheless.

"Wait, Wigglytuff mailed me not long ago, saying that the guild was about to go on an expedition – has it happened yet?" he asked.

"Eh, yea, unfortunately, the fog made our food supplies go rotten far faster than expected, so it ended prematurely." I lied to him – didn't like lying at all for moral and religious reasons, but I also made a promise to Uxie – I mean, I trusted the guy, even if he was at one time a dangerous criminal, but I wasn't taking any chances, in case I would accidentally expose a time gear.

"Eh, that's a shame..." Armaldo said – I wanted to leave, I didn't want him pressing on the subject too much.

"Ah, I have to leave now, going to meet up at the designated time, see ya" I said before leaving quite quickly. Armaldo said goodbye back to me politely, not noticing my suspicious haste, as we both parted ways. The town was still very busy, and was still filled with those pushy salesmen, and I didn't want to bother myself with them – it surely wouldn't take a few more years to limit them by law. Eventually, one of them did get to me - a charizard selling burgers. I had no idea what the meat was, but it seemed to taste fine to me.

"Ah, Floyd, there you are" A voice said that could only belong to Serge. "Well, now that you're here, you might as well have a break for a few hours at my place." He said, leading me away from the crowd – a crowd which seemed to be less surprised around foreigners – after all, I did swear I saw a simisage buying one of those seaweed rolls and they didn't seem to treat it as a big deal. Serge did lead me into his house, and from the inside, it looked...well...substandard compared to my flat in my real home, but still better than expected. No, it didn't have electricity, but unlike at the guild, it at least had a basic plumbing system, as I could tell by looking what appeared to be their kitchen – it seemed like it was rather renaissance era at some points. One thing I noticed, however, that there was no form of heating inside the house – but granted, Serge was a cyndaquil, so he could just heat himself up, and as I would have expected, both his parents were typhlosions, obviously, and it was confirmed to be true when I entered his living room.

"Ah, so you must be Floyd then, good to meat you." Serge's dad said, unless female typhlosions have gruff voices. I nodded at him once.

"Indeed." I said, keeping myself quite formal and polite – last thing I wanted to do right now is to make myself seem cocky. "Your son was the first person I met after leaving my homelands." I said. Now, here came a moment – I trusted Serge not to blab about my real origins to no one – if he didn't tell his parents while I wasn't there, then I doubt he'd tell anyone.

"Think you made a good choice moving over here?" He asked me as well, making conversation to me, and I tried to let it flow as naturally as possible.

"Let's just say I never got on with my family and peers back in my homeland and leave it at that – it's not something I feel comfortable talking about. I hope this doesn't bother you in any way." I said, trying to change the subject.

"I'll go get some nuts for us." Serge's mum said and went into the kitchen "Do take a seat Sn...Floyd. You prefer your birth name, right?" She said – seemed like Serge also told me that I like getting referred to by my actual name, even if she slipped up a bit.

"Although, one thing I did like about my homeland, is that this calling each other by our species name – it's reversed where I came from – matter of fact, it's almost considered rude to not call the people there by our names. It seems quite business like to me calling each other by our species, but maybe it's just because I'm not used to it. Doesn't it ever get confusing when people both call you 'Typhlosion' when there are two of you that live here?"

"Well, within our close friends, we call each other by our real names, but like many people here, I don't feel comfortable telling people my name when I don't know them well – perhaps it's a cultural thing though." Serge's dad told me – it was indeed interesting to learn more about the cultures of the populations here – some things were very western civilization-like, others, not even human-like, and that's not even referring to the physical attributes to the pokemon that lived here. Serge's mum brought the nuts through, and I ate a few, but rather slowly – I didn't feel entirely at ease here, but I was honestly more relaxed than I was around Treasure Town. "But I would say it's good for us to know who our son's been working with for the past month – I trust his judgement on friends, and you seem like a decent enough person for him to work alongside, I have no complaints. How do the other guild members treat such people as yourself?"

"As in other foreigners? Very mixed...almost half the guild distrusted me on my arrival, but a lot of them seem to not mind me of late – but I think that's really only because I had become quite good at exploring, but I'm not complaining at all about it." I said, still eating some more nuts. Serge's dad ate a lot more, due to his body size, and Serge was also eating some around the table.

"Yes, that was why my mother and to a lesser extent you, Dad, were reluctant to let me work in Treasure Town as an explorer, due to the stereotyped values that the people have there, which I do admit, is true to a small degree, but I swear, most of them are just fine, you have nothing to worry about." Serge said "Although as I said to you earlier, I'm sure that neither me nor Floyd would have done nearly as well without each other." Serge seemed far happier than he did earlier – it was hard, though, to tell whether it was genuine, or just trying to make me seem like a good guy to his mum and dad, which I felt very grateful for.

"Say, Serge, I can't remember if I've asked you this yet, but what made you want to become an explorer?" Serge seemed to smile slightly at this.

"Well, I guess it's about time I told you – you sitting comfortably?" He said and chuckled, not even giving me a chance to answer 'yes'. "Well, it involved the relic fragment" He said, showing it to me in the palm of his hand. "I did have an interest in treasure hunting – me and my friends used to play pretend treasure hunting a lot when I was younger, so I guess that was the very basic beginning, but it was on one night where I was in a camping trip with my friends, I got lost in the fog when I was searching for some firewood, since I couldn't be the fire myself for too long."

"Anyway, I then saw this strange being when I was lost – probably some kind of pokemon, but I can't be too sure – it was slightly bigger than me, seemed to hover and I think it was green – you see, I didn't find the fragment, but it was given to me by the being. He, or she, never really said anything to me except that someone wanted me to have it. I'm not sure if the name was even mentioned, but if it was, I didn't make it out, or I forgot it. Come to think of it, I've called it many things – this rock, this treasure, this relic fragment – that'll all I really know about it. But it did inspire me to try and take up exploring for real, so that I could hopefully find more treasures like this by myself, and share the glory and excitement of a true explorer. And as you can see on the shelf – those are some of the gems, that is from what is now officially called Conviction Cave. My parents were real proud of me when they found out I wasn't kidding." Serge's dad chuckled at this, almost dropping some nuts from his mouth.

"Indeed." Serge's dad said "Even some of my friends of mine who've only really heard of Serge and that's it, have brought up what they saw in some exploration magazines, and they tell me 'is that your son'? Of which I can proudly say 'yes' to. Seems like letting Serge go to Treasure Town was the best thing we could have done to him"

"I often wonder what gave me the strange rock..." Serge said, looking at the rock.

"By the way, you two..." Serge's mum suddenly said. "You could return to Treasure Town quickly – I'm sure the air mail service would give you a free ride there if you go and see them in about an hour or so, but it's up to you if you want to stay here for a couple of days if it's OK with the guild."

"Let's just go back then, eh?" Serge said, sounding more enthusiastic that I would have liked him to be. I would have rather stayed, in comparison to what I was used to, I loved this town, but it seems like Serge was going to be stubborn about it, and I merely shrugged at him. I shook hands with his parents before going to wait outside for Serge, giving them time to finish their family business, but I got distracted by a mirror on the wall – it seemed rather out of place, but looking at it, I saw a real, proper reflection of myself for the the first time ever – every other time, it was just blurry, and I was so busy, I never had time to be massively curious about it.

The thing I wanted most now, was to look at a human in the mirror, but nope, it was a snivy, as it had been for quite a while now. I was a bit taller than most other snivys, and looked rather aged for one as well, middle aged even, twice as old as I would expect myself to appear. Perhaps it was because I was almost a full-blown adult, and by practical biological laws, I should be a servine, which got me wondering – why a snivy? Indeed, it could be 'why anything else', but I assumed there was a distinct reason behind it – perhaps that could be a lead to getting home if I discovered why. Quite a lot of my body parts seemed to be slightly longer than your average snivy – was it because I was tall and fairly thin as a human? Or the specific type of snivy I had become?"

"Looking at the lighter, long head leaf that seemed to sprout from my head like a sloppy sword, and the broader, darker tail leaf, which was still taller than most snivy tail leafs, which was as efficient as a battle axe at dispatching those who try to maim me. My limbs were a bit longer as well – thankfully, since snivys usually have fairly stubby arms. I also looked a little rugged – not that I ever tool great care as a human for my skin, which could get a little spotty at times, as well as the acne on my shoulders, so could that be an explanation and reason for my appearance now? Or again, was it the fact that I was biologically old for snivy standards? I also overheard Serge and his parents about evolution, and how it it had became impossible – on earth, there seemed to be strange ritual sites where pokemon of many types evolve, but was deemed to important to the conservation of pokemon there, that not even the scientists tamper with it, and the punishment from the law is very severe for doing so."

"But it reminded me – I remember overhearing that the ritual sites seemed to have stopped working, and Serge's parents seemed concerned, since he was overdue by a few years to evolve into a quilava – they seemed very concerned about me, though – apparently, from what I overheard, they've all been having the problem across the continent for about three months now, causing some families to panic. They also seemed to think that I was about twenty-seven years old – well, that's one similarity between the humans and pokemon I meet – I've had people tell me that I looked twenty two when I was only twenty, soon approaching twenty-one. I swore I could see a slight stubble on my chin, which made me chuckle slightly, but it was most likely a bit of dirt. Serge soon came through in the entrance hall, stopping my thoughts on how I might have been almost dangerously overdue to evolve.

"You ready to go Floyd?" Serge asked me, carrying his own things. I merely nodded to him as I shook his parent's hands before walking out into the sunshine again.

"You seem to be a bit happier." Serge said to me.

"Emphasis on seem..." I said, but Serge cut me out before I got on another 'I want to be home as a human and that's all that matters to me' rant.

"Look, I'm not having you do this again – please – shut up about it. Complaining to me isn't exactly going to help the issue." He said sternly, and yet, I managed to achieve a funny remark in the face of this.

"Well, I need to vent the sadness and disappointment somehow!" I said and chuckled – I embraced who I was – a bit of a selfish dick in these environments, and while I was never that big on the 'being yourself' mentality, it kind of worked here - I was being so whiny, it became almost funny.

"But you should be grateful I haven't resorted to." I said and cleared by throat ans said in a mocking whiny voice. "Weeah, no one understands me, weeah I want to end it all, weeah!" Serge laughed out loud at this, but indeed, I felt as this helped to re-forge our friendship, which did see a little bump after the expedition, even if I did think that Serge really took the issue lightly, but then again, it was my problem and not his.

"Serge's mother said you two wanted a ride into Treasure Town – well, if it helps pay off that loan..." A tropius said, with a large bundle of packages that he slung in a bag around his belly. "Just hop on – I still need to get my shift done..." He said, sounding a little grumpy. We did was we were told and climbed on – and it was quite a view of the place when we took off – and what a view of the dynamic landscape! Everything here seemed much more cramped together – with tiny mountain ranges next to sea cliffs and forests and meadows that seemed to checker-board their way across the landscape. I lied forward and let the wind blow in my face, and as cheesy as it sounded, even something as simple as this seemed to bring hope back into me – there was an answer out there – I'd just need to wait for the next lead to show up – one of them will eventually lead me home for sure. Such thoughts remained with me until we arrived at the guild and headed on to our guild beds. Indeed, life would be returning to 'normal' in a couple of days, but I am damn well going to appreciate this break.

"Hey, Floyd." Serge said, lying on his back "I was thinking – we could be complete rising stars in the exploration community if we could tell people about the fogbound lake expedition properly – hell, we could even give Dusknoir a run for his money – he started exploring about the same time as us, and according to this magazine, holds many great achievements to his name, and considering he's been at it for a mere month and does all his exploring alone. His secret, apparently, is his knowledge – he's quite old, in his fifties, and he attained his knowledge that has helped him become successful through his extensive research on exploring in general. Shows what planning ahead can do for you..." He said as he continued to read some passages from the magazine to me – to be honest, I never really gave a shit about this Dusknoir fellow, but if it kept Serge happy...well, I was tired now, and I had more on my plate to think about than what I wanted – possibilities of ancient human civilizations, religious artifacts, things that challenged my views on the creation of the world, and how to plan my next moves in order to get back home...I would find the answers to all of them eventually...surely...


	11. I Wish

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Part 11: I Wish

The two weeks I had experienced since I came back from the expedition were some of the emptiest times I had experienced in my life. Everything that people considered joyful about exploring and being part of the guild was losing even more meaning for me - the trivial exploration didn't help me in any way, shape, or form, and I was still very firmly in square one in achieving my goals. Serge was clearly having a good time with the guild work and lifestyle, but I did notice that my self-induced moodiness was rubbing off him very slightly. I have even had guild members ask me several times why I felt glum after pretty much spearheading the guild's biggest achievement in that whole year - hell, even Loudred showed concern, his racial distrust of me wearing off now - the guild by now had become like a family to me now, for the wrong reason that my real family and friends were in another dimension.

When it came down to it, I should really be very thankful for being let in the guild - sure I didn't trust them as much as I trusted Serge, but I, especially after the expedition, was being treated with good regards in the guild, and to be on their side - it provided me with a sense of security, and a sense of stability in my life - well, as stable as having a career venturing into dangerous landscapes could be, I guess, but it was really too bad that it was pretty much all the guild talked about - their work, and the thrills of being an explorer. With that, I could at least chime in, even if it was a bit repetitive, but I was left out in the cold when they started talking about the 'celebrity' explorers, even though I was pretty sure Wigglytuff was one himself. I heard that Team Raider were considered the best in the world, but were starting to age slightly, and would likely be overtaken by Team Charm, a younger, all female team - of which Wigglytuff was at one point a part of for whatever reason, himself seeming very out of character and gender for a team like that.

The 'rising star' Dusknoir was also brought up a lot - he was a bit unusual, as he was apparently in his late fifties before starting, which was just over a mere month ago, and that the research that he done was paying of by the gold bar, but I never had any interest in finding out more than them, myself just overhearing snippets about them from the excited chit-chat, especially from the gossip woman Sunflora. Perhaps those wacky Giratina worshipping psychos were right about something - this world of only pokemon - quite similar to what they described as 'the other world' - him being the deity and master of the dimensional fields and paths of existence - perhaps he was to blame for me being shunted into this world. If that was the case, then I'd have no idea about what to do - just go and ask him politely to send me back?! Pah!

Loudred woke myself and Serge up in the usual routine - nothing changed there as we went for our usual morning cheers and briefings. The morning banter fired up straight afterwards, and once again, it was on the subject on the celebrities - how boring.

"...Well, apparently, Dusknoir is coming to visit Treasure Town fairly soon to explore this part of the continent! I really hope I can meet him!" Sunflora, squeeing ever so slightly, being a very blatant fan-girl of this Dusknoir. I merely shrugged at this and followed Serge up the ladder to pick our daily assignment.

"Hey Serge I'm not really in the mood to do anything too out there - want to take it easy for the day? Here, how's about this one here - just some poor bugger poliwag's lost his bag with some items of value in the Apple Woods when he fled from some venusaur defending it's turf." I said to him rather casually, but I was pulled away from it by a common and familiar voice from behind me.

"By golly, considering what you've done, isn't that...well...not very ambitious?" Bidoof said, overhearing my discussions. "And don't fake injuries and sickness in the guild - I've only ever seen it work once, done by yours truly."

"Hm?" Serge said, also turning towards Bidoof. "What was that for?"

"It's a fairly long story that it's probably best kept within those who were involved. Yup yup, I'm not going to waste you're time, you should get going soon."

"I cannae be arsed to go right now though." I said, groaning and stretching my arms. "Really Bidoof, I could use a spin on the usual exploration banter - do tell us." I said in a friendly manner, sitting down. Something I noticed about about a week ago - those coming into the guild to do assignments, but did not stay at the guild, or receive any resources or tuition there - there were a shitload of riolus, pikachus, eevees, and vulpixes, and I did often wonder why a good portion of those that came here consisted of those sorts of pokemon.

"I see you noticed the large number of those sorts that come to take assignments." Loudred said, suddenly joining us. "Reason being for those species often taking up exploring is a family thing - you'd be hard pressed to find a family of riolus and lucarios who DON'T take up exploring, if you excuse my shouting - got told off from Chatot a few days about it. Anyway, the more devout families will even outright disown their kids if they don't want to be explorers, or even if they're just not very good at it - bastards. It's also in a way why none of them actually study and stay at the guild - their families give them the teaching and resources they need. Well, most of the time anyway."

"Also, it's why being members of the guild attract species who don't normally take up exploring - my family were up in arms about it when I made up my mind, and who on earth has ever heard of a bidoof or bibarel who became an explorer?" Bidoof looked up at Loudred at this point. "But this fella here started DEFYING those trends thanks to the guild. It's kind of strange, Floyd - I never thought I'd say this, but you're not actually that bad a guy. I guess YOU weren't a rich, snobby, money-sapping leech after all, again, excuse my shouting - my family never had a problem with it, but if other people do then...well, what can you do? Anyway, I'm rambling on, I've got sentry duty in ten minutes, so I'd better get ready, see you some other time." He said, speaking to us in a very fast and loud manner, outright shouting the occasional word. "Trust me, my voice can't go nearly as loud as the guildmaster's can - according to Chatot anyway, anyway, duty calls, BYE!" He said and ran off back downstairs.

"...When you're not on his bad side, you can never get him to be quiet, by golly. Anyway, you were wanting to hear my story?" Bidoof said, pausing for about ten seconds before actually speaking again. "I have full trust in you this time, and as guild members, I should have told you earlier, yup yup!"

"Sure, go on." Serge said, sitting down against the wall, and I followed suit and listened. Bidoof also sat down and rubbed his head fairly firmly before speaking.

"Remember how I told you about my greatest achievement as an explorer Floyd? It's within the same event. You see, I was given this map by a stranger that supposedly led to some real hidden treasure - the artifacts that could have been there! The snover who gave me it saw me a couple of days later, so I had to fake illness and sneak out when no one was looking. It fooled Chatot for a bit, but I'll get to that. Anyway, it led to a place called Star Cave - wait...no it wasn't..." He said, suddenly looking very uncomfortable, and I swore I could see him break a sweat when he said it - I didn't need to ask him any questions that he let the Star Cave location slip - I was a fairly nose guy, and I was immediately interested. I was sure he mentioned Star Cave to me at some point within the first week of me joining the guild anyway, maybe he had a change of heart about how open he was about it.

"...Anyway, I was to meet Snover just outside 'our location' at one o'clock with the help of the map that I was given by him, and it was when I reached a dead end to the cave, the trap was set. The two thugs he was running away from a few days back in treasure town were his own buddies, and there were going to beat me to a pulp to steal my money and belongings. I was thankful that Chatot didn't believe me for long, and actually feared for my safety - all the guild came to my rescue - each and every single one of them! I could have cried right then...Ok, I did actually cry - it's really great knowing that you're appreciated."

"Anyway, the guildmaster knew about cave walls in general extensively through his experience, and knew through out some strange technique that part of the wall was very hollow - enough for him to blast through, but he let me go on alone, since he said that they wouldn't have been in this rather legendary cave if it weren't for me. So I went into the depths - and what a cave it was, it's hard to describe, but the rocks seemed to be far lighter than normal in colour, and strange trickles of water dropped from cave ceiling corners. And then I saw Jirachi, a pokemon of myth and legend itself and...I've said enough." Bidoof said stopping suddenly. "I got carried away there, the guild advised me to keep this on a need-to-know and private basis."

"Isn't Jirachi some sort of wish-maker pokemon in mythology?" Serge asked before he could leave, which caught my attention immediately, since before now, I never really new anything about Jirachi. Bidoof looked like he was about to panic, and never said anything regarding Jirachi, and suddenly turned fairly serious.

"Yes, which is why the place should remain hidden." He said with a frown on his face - something Bidoof rarely 'wore.' "To think - what if someone with bad intentions found Jirachi? Think what that could do - he could use a wish from Jirachi to make crime a very easy thing for him or her to do, or worse. I'm telling you, don't tell anyone for whatever reason, and don't go looking for the place either, and before you ask, I wished something that could be perceived as a little arrogant - I was the least experienced in the guild at the time, and I wanted someone that would be less experienced than even me. I was tired of being the worst explorer in the guild - I wanted to be able to help someone for once rather than me always the one needing help. I'm going to do my assignment, bye." He spoke very quickly towards the end and outright ran away from the guild building to do his exploration assignment - we clearly made him feel uncomfortable right there, and although it evidently made him act rather unusual for the somewhat bumbling person he was, I had absolutely no intention of respecting his petty wishes about not looking for the cave - it's not like I even said I wouldn't look for it anyway.

By now, some pieces were adding up here - in fact, considering what he said, it would not be unreasonable to think that his wish might have have been the cause itself for what happened to me - yes, it would now not seem unreasonable to think that I was wished here as the less-experienced explorer to make Bidoof feel better about himself. This lead was solid, my patience paid off again - only a couple of weeks of getting off the false lead, I found another one.

"...What you thinking of Floyd? Not the...cave, right?" Serge said, looking around for pokemon that might have overheard us. I inhaled slightly, as I felt obligations to be truthful to him - I still felt as though I might need Serge later, and even if I didn't, I didn't want a lie to be the last thing I would leave him with - since within hours, I could find Jirachi to wish my back to a human back in the human world! Come to think of it, Bidoof and this jirachi could likely be the reason I ended up here in the first place! Jirachi owes me one, and disrespecting Bidoof's request was ample justice for him. I nodded slightly and put my face to close to him that our long noses accidental touched. I breathed fairly deeply and frowned slightly as I made direct, unblinking eye contact with Serge.

"Yes, I am, I will go there - and you will have to physically restrain and burn me to stop me. You can either come with me and help, or stay out of my way, you're choice. Either way, I'm going to find out where it is, and then I might be going home for good...I'm going to wish myself back home." I said, several emotions running through me as I said that - determination, happiness and a bit of solemness. I did feel like a bit of a jerk for suddenly saying this to Serge. He stared at me for a brief moment before exhaling audibly.

"...I see, well, if this works for you then...I'll be exploring on my own, but it seems like you found what you were looking for. I dunno how to say this, but, uh, thanks for kick starting my career for my career. It's too bad for me in a way - you were a great friend as well. You're not going to forget about me, will you?" I can't lie to myself - I might end up missing the guy - we ended up using each other as a leg-up to what we wanted to achieve, and I was very grateful for him. I smiled slightly, glancing back at him.

"I will, actually - but I have a home to get to, I'll be in the library to do some research - but who knows, I might not be able to find a 'Star Cave' anywhere, but at least I know the name of the place - you might see me again, who knows." The parting of ways here was surprisingly tough, but I merely lumped my way through it. "Just go and do your assignment - I want this to be as simple as possible, and I don't want Chatot yelling at you for not completing your assignment that day."

"One more thing, Floyd...what will I say to the other guild members? Since, to them, you'd have merely disappeared." I thought for a moment upon hearing this, as I shifted through my thoughts, trying to come up for an explanation.

"...Tell me that my parents found me and forced me to return to continue their family business, and restrained me against my will and that you tried, but failed to save me from them." I said, as I saluted Serge with respect before jumping down the ladder, not even bothering to climb on a single rung, landing with such precision, that it was painless. I was happy I ended it here with Serge to prevent a more emotional farewell for us both - I really didn't want it to be harder than it had to be. Perhaps once I get home, I could even find it in myself to give my good friend and band mate Omar a really big hug. Now that a more likely end was in sight of me being in this crapsack word, I began to get even more nostalgic for the folks back home. I just hope they would be as overjoyed to see me after mysteriously disappearing for about six weeks as I would be overjoyed to see them.

"Forget something?" Chatot said from my right as I landed, walking up to me with curiosity.

"No, actually, just doing a bit of research on the place we'll be entering for our assignment - never been there before." I inhaled slightly, hoping Chatot wouldn't ask where we were going - I don't think I could improvise a location on the spot that easily.

"Oh, I see, playing it safe eh? I don't blame you, it's a good exploration technique. Well, I wish you luck." He said before hopping off up the ladder, causing me no fuss at all. I went into the library very quickly and jogged immediately to the 'locations' section. There was not an article or book titled 'Star Cave', so I had to try and look it up in a book titled 'Places and Locations of Legend.' I flicked through with the pages with impatience, but all I found out was a page on Star Cave, merely telling me rumours on what it was like on the inside and Jirachi - nothing on where it could be in this landscape. I could have sworn loudly in frustration, but refrained from doing so, not wanting to draw attention to myself. While I was thinking I could wait until tomorrow to interrogate Bidoof on the matter with a bit more force - cruel as it was, it'd be worth it - I had one last idea thinking about Bidoof - perhaps he still had the map.

I immediately head to the living quarters and rummaged through Bidoof's stuff, and in one of his drawers, there was indeed a map, a rather shabby looking one at that. This was probably it - it didn't say whether it was Star Cave or not, but I could assume it was - it was the best I had. This was just a little bit scary though - I was heading out to go to a hidden location - and this time, Serge would not be with me.

The journey to the cave felt lonely, and paranoia was seeping in as I followed the rather worn map as I sheltered it as best I could from the light drizzle that wasn't getting me wet per se, but it was blowing in my face, as if the weather was content with merely pissing me off rather than working against me. I must have looked over my shoulder about fifty times on the lonely trek towards a small hill I saw about a mile away, and my paranoia increased threefold as I left the beaten track. I could be entering some savage pokemon's territory and not realise and could end up with dangerous wounds from a sneak attack, if not outright death. By now, I wished I begged Serge to come with me earlier, since it was the first time I really ventured far outside Treasure Town by myself - I could always count on him to watch my back, but he wasn't with me this time - I had to rely on myself exclusively now. Inhaling deeply to try and keep myself calm and retaining rational thought, I pressed on without any real incidents, except running away from a raticate that didn't even show any signs of aggression or territorial behaviour. I knew fine well I could take it on in a fight by myself, but even small unintelligent pokemon seemed to now be huge threats.

"Ok, it should be at the other side of this hill..." I said, eating what seemed to be a sausage from by bag - again, I had no idea what the meat actually was - for all I know, it could be outright cannibalism, but it really didn't taste much different from usual pork sausages, so I thought nothing of it. 'Regular animals' also existed here, but given the fact that they generally can't defend themselves against pokemon, a lot of them must have been ousted to extinction by their 'biological superiors.' Perhaps it was pork after all - or I hoped it was - Dialga doesn't approve of pokemon based meats, and such, I avoided eating them. The instructions on the map were rather vague, but I apparently, the entrance was hidden through a thick patch of shrubs.

"If there is a nest here, I'm gonna..." I muttered out loud to myself and pressed through them, and perhaps it was due to the species of pokemon I was, but it didn't feel uncomfortable or difficult doing so. Trying to do so with a spinarak attacking you was a lot more difficult as it seemed territorial, but solitary.

"Get back! Argh!" I said, slicing at it with my head leaf, attacking out of panic rather than using a calculated strategy to try and take it down, cutting down a lot of the low-lying plants as if my head leaf were a machete. It tried to weigh me down by spewing its sticky web at me, but by then, it was beyond fighting and made a strange noise that I could not describe except for by calling it a combination of a quiet screech and mad clicking before scuttling away. The sticky webs however made it very difficult for me to move much, making trying to get through the rest of the shrubs a difficult task, and trying to pull them off proved to be just as difficult as trying to move forward with the webs making taking a step a mammoth effort.

The frustration, however, was soon being replaced with anxiety - I was one of the rare individuals who had no fear or even dislike of bugs or bug pokemon on the whole, considering that none of them really ate humans, and only attack if they feel threatened for the most part, but I had a very good reason to be afraid now. It must have been it's big brother or daddy, and it was approaching from behind - an ariados, almost twice my size, and sizing me up for its next meal – now I had good reason to be afraid. It's mandibles clicked as it moved steadily towards me, and that was when the real panic set in, and the icing on the cake - should I stay and try to remove the webs before fleeing, or try to flee right away. My heart rate soared, and the adrenaline kicked in - it felt as though I was stronger than before, but fight or flight was now running my thoughts as I tried to hop through the bushes with unsuccessful results.

Serge wasn't here to save my ass, and he wouldn't be coming, and my breathing increased to such a level that it seemed to ripple against my throat, causing my hyperventilating to sound more like chocked gasps. Fleeing without removing the webs wasn't going to cut it, and my arms were stiff, also because of the webs as well - but hope remained as the predator was mere meters away - my head leaf was still free. Not caring where I cut, I sliced madly where my legs are, freeing them from the sticky webs for the most part, while also decorating them with nasty cuts and gashes. Pain would have held me back here, but pain had no place in such desperate times as I dived head first through the bushes to escape it's lethal pounce on me. I slashed at my arms with haste to free them, leaving even more wounds this time as I sliced madly at the plants ahead of me, hearing the ariados get up, clearly not giving up the chase. The terror of the situation was now so intense, it forced my eyes shut as I kept running and hacking at whatever was in front of me before I stumbled on a rock and ended up tripping and rolling down a rocky path. My face landed flat on a hard, rough surface as I opened my eyes slowly and looked behind me - I must have found the cave, and it didn't seem like my predator was interested in chasing me inside. Taking the good with the bad, the pain set in along with the relief, and it was only then to see how badly I injured myself - deep cuts everywhere and it was now where I felt very weakened as I bled slowly.

"...Ahh..." I moaned in agony, realising I could barely stand, trying to adjust myself in a position that would be the least painful to stand in, but my limbs, even then, still felt like they were on fire. It was here, where I perhaps felt more sinister instincts seep in - I'm a snivy who can recover from wounds very quickly...if I find someone who can 'help' me. At this stage, I just didn't care - I was alone, weakened, but not entirely defenceless. I could always find some sleeping pokemon to assist me if I was lucky, and lucky I was. Stumbling a short distance into the cave, I found a psyduck, sleeping by itself next to a small stream which was trickling towards deeper parts in this rather dusty cave. I couldn't help but smile when I saw this as I approached it, preparing to use some of its energy to help heal my wounds whether it liked it or not. My arms glowed green as I got behind it and held it softly and started draining it of its energy - it felt so very good, almost euphoric to feel strength return into me, and my injuries being slowly removed. It woke up for a bit, but put up pretty much no resistance as it fell back into unconsciousness - it was enough for the poor psyduck and I stopped draining him, but I still needed more - those deeper gashes were still there, as I hunted for my next victim.

I told myself firmly that I wasn't causing them pain, merely causing exhaustion to those that I used my draining attacks on, but I wasn't entirely sure. It didn't seem like an issue when I sneaked up behind another hapless psyduck and drained it into unconsciousness by holding it's beak shut, limiting its struggling with my vines as well as my arms. There was one thing for sure - my body, and my more primal instincts loved this, and hungered and craved for more. But I was beyond that - I was civilized! As if I would let animalistic instinct take control! I would not let myself become some kind of vampire and cause these poor individuals serious harm - they'd probably just wake up a bit later feeling weakened, after all, and besides, my wounds were pretty much gone. While I was no pokemon expert, I never really heard of pokemon in nature draining other pokemon to sustain themselves - I was sure that snivies were carnivorous, as well as photosynthesis users, but this to my memory was vastly uncommon, and I began to wonder about the effects this body was having on my mind - was I acting as a different person altogether? These thoughts left even quicker than they came when I began to walk further down, deeper into the cave. The odd cave-dwelling pokemon seemed to be very timid, and they seemed physically weaker than most other pokemon, and this environment seemed very closed in, and the deeper I got down, the darker it became. I was amazed at how some of the light was still reaching inside, but by now, I could only see a few meters in front of me. My deep breathing resonated throughout the cave, forcing myself to remain calm, and to not jump a foot in the air at the slightest noise.

What I saw next seemed to open up slightly, and at a glance, it would seem like I had stumbled across another entrance to the cave, but upon looking around, I saw that I had entered a large natural chamber with illumination that confused me, and I could not tell if it was natural or not. They greyish blue cave walls seemed almost supernatural for reasons I couldn't explain, but they nonetheless gave off a sense of majesty and significance. And then I saw what I could only guess was the jirachi that Bidoof found, the cave's light gently reflecting off its body, making not a sound. He just seemed to hover sleepily in front of me, its golden streamers and blue 'wish tag's defying gravity, looking like they were blowing in the wind in spite of the absence of said wind. This could very well be my ticket out of here, and containing my joy was impossible.

"I found you! I have, I have!" I said, outright jumping in the air and running towards him, who looks like he had just woke up a few minutes ago - its eyes were open only slightly, and it looked like he was struggling to keep them open.

"...Oh, you must be a surface dweller...havn't seen one since that strange young bidoof came over." He said, and it was hard to tell if he sounded tired or bored - reading the expressions on pokemon was a good bit harder than on humans, but they seemed oddly enough to follow similar rules of thumbs for when doing so.

"Oh god, if you grant me my wish, I would be so happy, I could not describe it!" I said - by this point, my eyes were starting to water in anticipation. Jirachi seemed to think for a bit, pause, and then spoke.

"...Ok, what is it then...sorry, I only slept for five days straight when you came in - I usually need six days a week sleeping time." He said to me and yawned. "Good thing you didn't come earlier...anyway, a wish..." He said sounding very dreamy and probably more spaced out than tired, but I guess it was how jirachis acted when they were tired. "What will it be?"

"Ok, wonderful! You see - I'm not really a snivy, but a human - I came from the human world, and I want nothing more in life than to go back, and have my original body back - yes, to go back to how things were - could you make that happen now, please? I'll wait as long as it takes though." I said, sitting down and closing my eyes, listening to what Jirachi was about to say - I mean, the moment I next open my eyes, I could be home - I could see my band again, and my father - the people I trusted most in the world, and by now, I realised how much I missed them dearly. And then he spoke again.

"...Oh...that'll take a very long time..." Jirachi said to me, his speech slurring slightly - he still resembled being sleepy, but it slowly started reminding me of my usual state when I had a few cans of cider, but only in tone of voice - it was a little jarring seeing him majestically float above the ground in the manner that he did.

"Oh, then, how long do you think it'll take then?" I asked, not showing any form of disappointment, as I was still engulfed in joy, almost dancing as I stood there.

"I'm not entirely sure, actually." Jirachi said, starting to wake up properly and stretching, looking a little uncomfortable, his voice resonating off the cave walls distinctly - either that or his voice had a natural echo to it, I couldn't tell, and I wouldn't be surprised either way.

"You can grant wishes like this, right?" I asked, inhaling right before I asked. I held my breath waiting for the answer, looking right into Jirachi's eyes.

"...Ok, you got me - I don't have that kind of power." He said, looking quite apathetic and he turned away. All the excitement and happiness I had accumulated had all come crashing down in one blow, but before I could physically react to this revelation, he continued to speak. "We jirachi are extremely low in numbers across this world due to our incredibly rare opportunities to multiply - I'm guessing there's no more than eight world wide, but we also have incredibly long life-spans, about eight hundred years as a guess, so what do you think the people will think of such rare and long living pokemon?" I stood around and tried to think, but the thoughts having my dream crash down for a second time still had me in a state of misery, disappointment and anger.

"I'll just tell you anyway. Obviously, legends were made of us, but the one that stuck was us being some sort of wish-granters, which is completely and utterly false. The reason why I didn't say to Bidoof that I couldn't grant wishes is because I still wanted to offer him hope, and I did - it'd only be common sense to think that other people would eventually sign up for the guild, so I decided to keep him happy and said that it was a wish. With your wish however, I tried to make it so it would seem like one to make it seem like your hopes and dreams would come true within a few weeks, but this was too hard for me to bluff. I'm sorry that you spent all this time trying to find me, but there's really not much I can do. We only wanted to make use of the myths made of our kind to offer some kind of hope." By now, I was kneeing by a small boulder, resting my forehead against it thinking it all over - another legend chased, another fruitless result - it felt like this world was out to specifically torment me.

The fury and sadness was still there, but this time, it was overrun by disappointment - I guess this is what I got for being naive - I came expecting Jirachi to wave a metaphorical magic wand to make everything better, but all I got was someone who lied in order to try and help like a common Palkia follower, of which Dialga had warned us over the consequences of this. Hope was starting to become harder to cling onto by this stage - this was two false leads, and thoughts of running into endless ones and ultimately dying here, or not getting home until I'm a middle aged adult, where no doubt the experiences of this world would warp me beyond recognition, if not, induce outright insanity. I felt a small tap on the shoulder, and looked up to find Jirachi looking at me.

"I'm no wish maker but...I'm sure you'll return home one day - don't give up hope, please. Do you currently live in Treasure Town?" He asked, his voice still sounding almost as if it were elsewhere - perhaps it was using it's vocal chords in a way with it's own psychic abilities, but whatever it was doing, it sounded unearthly, but in a smooth, comforting way as he tried to comfort me, but not being overly successful. I slowly looked up at him and nodded slightly my expression staying in a glum vat of disappointment.

"...Aye, I do." I said slowly to him. "Why'd you ask, you offering me a way back there?"

"Well, jirachi like us - we're not really wish makers, but we do have very honed psychic abilities - I'll teleport you there within a minute - keep in mind, you might feel a bit queasy for the next few minutes - would you like to go now?" He asked with a genuine look of friendliness, and I wasn't going to turn down an offer like this - sure I wasn't going home, but hey - at least I can get back to safety without risk of being eaten by some large forest dweller.

"Sure, let's get this done quickly then." I said and set on the rock and looked at him - his eyes glowed blue very slightly, which I guessed was some of the residue of the psychic energy that was coming off him and before long, I started feeling very light headed, but not only light headed - my entire body felt light, as if its weight was being reduced, but before I had time to question all that the scenery suddenly changed - no longer was I in an strangely illuminated cavern, but just outside of Treasure Town on the west side of it - it was getting well into evening now as the low lying sun flooded the area with a distinctive orange that gave the place a very different feel, but this 'different feel' was very normal - I experienced and saw such things countless times in the human world, so I thought nothing of it. I shrugged casually and walked back into town, and as I done so, I heard some excited chatter from the locals.

"...So yeah, it's true - Dusknoir himself has came here on his tour of this continent - he said he came a long way when he arrived apparently - from the lands of the south. No one native here has ever been there!" A heracross local said, sounding rather excited - I recognised the guy from Spinda's coffee shop - he seemed like a complete addict to the place.

"I've heard of that place - I know the one of the guys from a fearow family who live sort of near here - he said his grandfather was part of the exploration daredevils who kept on flying south with some other fearow to search for new land, but only succeeded in finding a small island where they had to rest or they would have died of exhaustion! It was totally uninhabited, but they apparently sold it off as a new world. The actual continent itself though - apparently really hostile, no civilization there at all according to rumour, though perhaps he'll tell us more about it." His zigzagoon friend responded. "He's visiting the guild in particular, speaking to Wigglytuff one-to-one - to think what among two of histories greatest explorers would talk about!" I wasn't nearly as excited as they were about the arrival of another celebrity, but on the same token - he came from another continent - what if he knows different secrets of the world. If I could get the chance, it might be worth asking him, but it'd be hard with everyone in the town swooning and asking for autographs all the time. The guild doors were still open by the time I got there where I saw Chatot trying to contain a crowd of what appeared to be fan-girls of him trying to get in.

"Look, he and the guildmaster are discussing very important things..." He announced, but it fell on deaf ears as the noisy crowd kept chattering away and trying to convince him to let them through, which really pissed him off.

"...And when I say important, I mean fucking important!" He suddenly yelled with great force at them, completely losing patience, which did get them to descend to hushed tones. "If you're that desperate for an autograph, I'm sure he'll be around tomorrow - by the looks of things, he'll be around these parts for a while - I'm sure you'll get the chance, now clear off! I'm trying to close the guild for the night." He said, and started trying to shoo the excited followers away, with only limited success, when he noticed me approach the entrance.

"Floyd?! I thought you...ugh, dive past me will you while I clear the crowd off - explain to me afterwards, so prepare your words beforehand." He said, keeping his authority as I jumped right over him and dived down the ladder hole, grabbing one of the rungs along the way down to slow my fall, and I saw the other guild members all conversing quietly - they had seemed to get over the initial excitement of a top-of-the-range explorer celebrity arriving and seemed to be discussing about what Wigglytuff and Dusknoir were discussing.

"Floyd!" I heard an all too familiar voice say as Serge approached me. "You're back!" He looked quite happy to see me back which rubbed off in a bad way on me - Serge was a fairly open person, but it was rather hard to read of how much he wanted me to stay for his own ends - still, I knew he at least wasn't a bad person.

"...That whole thing about the wish granting - complete bullshit - and Bidoof's 'wish' - well, let's just say Jirachi kind of figured out that new arrivals - turned out to be us two - at the guild would come eventually, so he didn't tell Bidoof that he couldn't grant wishes in order to make him feel like he earned and accomplished something for finding him in the rather unknown cave - but as far as everyone else is concerned - like I said to you before I escaped my zealous parents trying to take me back 'home.'" I said all of this in a concentrated whisper - it would also seem like Serge kept even the lie of what I was doing - except perhaps maybe to Chatot for whatever reason - while he went on a solo job from the board.

"...That's really too bad for you man - but hey, at least you still have a place here, right?" He said, trying to perk me up a bit - again, his good mood made me feel rather bitter, but he was right - I still fitted in this world, and I wasn't hated on the whole. It wasn't quite bearable, but it wasn't complete agony either. The sound of a door opening sounded from across the room as heads turned in unison towards Wigglytuff and Dusknoir walking out shaking hands, with Wigglytuff smiling broadly before turning to the guild members.

"News, friends! Dusknoir will indeed be staying around these parts for a while on his tour! He won't be staying in the guild building, but he has told me that you guild members may ask him anything you like that might help you on your explorations! Perhaps a foreigner like him with such vast experience and knowledge could even teach me something! It would surely help you!" He said, looking like a toddler got offered a crate load of his favourite candy - hardly surprising for Wigglytuff though. Dusknoir next to him cleared his throat - or whatever the equivalent was with a body like that - and spoke in a rather gentleman like tone of voice that seemed to express signification and friendliness.

"Greetings guild members, do not be shy to approach me as your guildmaster has instructed and keep up the good work of apprehending criminals, as well as your exploration efforts - I have yet to come across a place which has an exploration guild as it's law enforcement, but as far as I can tell, it's very efficient - I'll look forward to learning from you as you may be from learning from me - goodnight, and I might even see a few of you sometime soon – farewell, and may we have many greetings more." He said and seemed to float slowly up and out of the guild, passing Chatot, who looked like he really wanted to talk to him right away - rather strange considering he was heavily annoyed at some of the other fans of him. Chatot soon snapped out of this and ordered everyone to have a good sleep for tomorrow before getting my attention.

"Yes, Floyd, I heard what went on on the exploration today..." he said to me, lowering his head, but still making unblinking eye contact. "I asked Serge after he arrived back at the guild by himself and told me what happened - my, my, Floyd, what a story - you must have quite a background - sounds more like you fled from your home rather than just left it." I swallowed slightly - I really hated going against my own faith and lie, but I had faith that I was still in line with the loophole - 'lying is acceptable if it protects you from unfair treatment' – I kept telling myself that.

"Well...yeah, that's pretty much it - I didn't want to come off as an asylum seeker - my parents were outraged that I didn't really want to continue the family business, not that it was making that much money anyway, so they tried to force me back home to make me follow through with their wishes." I said, not looking quite as confident I usually was when making up my background story for them.

"I see, but remember - background checks - I'll be looking into them. Your story seems to change ever so slightly now and then. Have a good sleep and do a good job tomorrow." He spoke in a formal, businessman like tone to me before hopping off. Stretching slightly, the thoughts of disappointment, and thoughts that this world was tormenting me by giving me red herrings, blocking me from getting home all slowly returned as I walked slowly into my room where Serge was getting comfortable in his straw bed.

"It's almost like the world itself is working against me to keep me confined here..." I said as I belly flopped on my pile of straw. "I felt even more sure than the last fucking time!" Serge really didn't react much to my moaning and bitching - perhaps he fell asleep really quickly.

"Come on Serge, I need at least a smidge of comfort!" I complained and Serge responded, sighing slightly - I guess he also liked his sleep, but he never usually seemed too much into getting every single minute possible of snooze time.

"It'll be OK Floyd, go get some sleep, I'm really tired after what happened today...I guess you could ask Dusknoir or something - he might be your best bet at this moment." I guess he wasn't much of an evening person, which was the polar opposite to what I was like in the human world. Filled with frustration, I clenched my teeth and exhaled and I guess it took about two hours to all asleep - perhaps Serge was right, and it was something I even thought of earlier - I still had cards in my hands, my options weren't all out yet - yeah, there's a chance Dusknoir might know a thing or two, but all in all, there was something I didn't know about the near future - I'd be getting more involved with Dusknoir than I could possibly anticipate.


	12. When Push Comes To Shove

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 12: When Push Comes To Shove

A couple of days have passed since the failed venture at Star Cave and Dusknoir's arrival, and I hadn't really been able to get a word by myself with him. For someone who wasn't in their twenties or thirties, or the general age group where fans tend to swoon over them, he had a very large and concentrated following in Treasure Town, especially now that he was staying there for a while - he looked like he was older than Wigglytuff. All in all, I just didn't think he could possibly have any answers, considering even Uxie himself didn't, so it's nothing I could get worked up over. The usual morning cheers went off once again, and the only difference was that Wigglytuff didn't go straight to his quarters.

"Wigglytuff, you got your equipment ready? And please don't fall asleep this time!" Chatot said, sounding like a nagging mother.

"Yes!" Wigglytuff said after a long delay. "I'll keep you safe!" I couldn't help but notice that Wigglytuff's fur seemed a bit paler compared to the wigglytuffs I saw on TV and I couldn't help but think It was a sign of ageing, not that it seemed to slow him down or anything - hell, there was even someone who completed a marathon in the late nineties, thinking about a documentary I one time watched a few years back. I casually glanced at the newly put in mirror in the guild as I waited for Serge, and I didn't like what I saw at all - aside from the obvious parts about being a Snivy, I too didn't look young for some reason - not old, but I certainly didn't look like a young adult. My face looked marked in ways that only instinct could tell me it was a sign of age - was my lifespan really short, and that I might have been forty in snivy years? I had no idea, and it unnerved me a fair bit.

"You look troubled Floyd." Serge said from behind, ready to head out.

"Yeah man...I look old, and while I knew it from what your parents were talking about, I never really had the chance to take it in." I said back to him, gently touching the 'age marks' on my face, even though they looked completely different to human age lines, and it was probably just me, but it almost seemed like I was growing my beard back slightly - at least that was one of my human features.

"I'm guessing that you're far overdue for an evolution - I'm quite overdue myself - I didn't feel too comfortable about evolving into a quilava when I was becoming a teenager, and it never really crossed my mind until when I visited my parents just after the expedition - I'd go for one now, and visit one of the luminous springs for the ritual if they were still working - it worries me actually, if I don't evolve, I could die of old age before I reach forty." He said looking concerned in a way that annoyed me somehow.

"Thanks for the reassurance..." I replied bitterly at him, but it wasn't his fault per se - if Serge was overdue for one, then I was badly overdue one, but it wasn't like I could do anything about it. Arceus must have been drunk to think the ritual sites was a good idea - he definitely got it better in the human universe. We left right after Wigglytuff and Chatot did, and I assumed they were doing their own exploration together, since they have been keeping very well on top of administrative duties and paper work according to the very nosy Sunflora.

"Let's head into town before we go - maybe this time I can get Dusknoir while he's alone for a bit." I said walking straight there not really giving Serge the choice as he followed behind me, having to jog to keep up with my fast walking pace. It was yet another sunny day which gave me a bit of a photosynthesised spring in my step, and for what I saw up ahead, I had a reason to have a spring in my step - Dusknoir was actually alone, aside from talking to the Kecleon brothers, but approaching them, I realised something important - I never directly thought about the exact things I'd ask him at all! I still didn't feel comfortable about revealing what I was originally, so I planned on asking him things in roundabout ways. I walked up fairly quietly behind Dusknoir, inhaled, and cleared my throat, not feeling overly nervous.

"Excuse me Dusknoir, do you have a minute? It's not for autographs or anything." I said with purpose and without any form of a nervous waver. Dusknoir and the Kecleon brothers stopped talking for a moment and Dusknoir turned round to look at me - he almost resembled some sort of large genie, having his arms folded as he looked down at me with his single eye.

"I'm not in a hurry - I often do my explorations and other work a bit later on in the day anyway. I think I remember you from Wigglytuff's exploration guild. Something you wish to ask me?" He said in a deep and commanding voice, and yet, he didn't seem intimidating as in spite of his rather unsettling image, he did come across as being genuinely friendly.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you've ever heard of the legendary human race before - some theories around here based on some art works done by smeargles over a hundred years ago among other forms of evidence would suggest that they elevated some of the pokemon here to civilized ways. Just wondering what you thought of all that." I asked and Dusknoir responded fairly quickly as if he knew a fair bit about these rumours and tales.

"Oh I'm pretty sure it happened. Some people would say that since there are no humans around nowadays to our knowledge, the likelihood of them even existing is almost zero, but the evidence for their existence is surely overwhelming - perhaps they came from another plane of existence, which is a popular theory where I come from - the lands of the south - of which I've lived pretty much all of my life. Surely we owe our thanks to the three humans, which is what they called themselves, to lift us into civilized ways." Dusknoir said, seeming happy that someone brought it up - he, like Chatot, seemed genuinely interested in finding out about the three humans that came here long ago.

"Seems likely to me as well - we can't know there's more to to existence that what we can currently experience - it's really the whole point of being in explorations, since really - we're only at the frontier, or the birth of civilization. I wonder what their world is like?" Dusknoir chuckled slightly, seeming to be as cheerful as he was friendly.

"Now that would be the pinnacle of exploration - going to a completely new other world." He said, and he seemed like he was actually enjoying our conversation when a mood killer came along at a really annoying time in the form of Marill and Azurill. They were nice enough and all, but I wasn't really in the mood to hear about their disposition this time, since they looked like they were in another one.

"It's you two!" Marill said as she ran up to us, gasping for breath, clearly not being that adept at running with Azurill struggling to keep up even more. "Really, really sorry for this, but you two seemed like the best two people we could turn to for this incident here." Serge then suddenly spoke, who was just keeping quiet and listening to myself and Dusknoir talk earlier on.

"Oh, what is it?" He said with concern. I just lazily turned my head around - this had better be important - they both look healthy, but remembering that their mother was ill before - it might have gotten to a dangerous stage. It had better be that, or else...

"We found where my little brother's water float is - that's the good news. The bad news is that it's in the Amp Plains, which I would probably not survive trying to get it - I really hate to ask you guys, but...you think you could get it back for us?" Marill asked us, looking very guilty, and it was clear that do-gooder Serge looked like he might actually accept the heavy request! There comes a line where I'm not willing to help, so before he could speak, I yanked him by the arm.

"Ahem...a moment, please, so we can discuss this." I said, getting behind him and outright pushing him away from the others until we were out of earshot of them. They were still in eyesight just at the corner of the building - this worked good for me.

"Floyd, is there any reason why we can't be more open with our discussions? Is something different this time?" Serge said, frowning ever so slightly, which did not put me off my mini-rant that I was about to unleash on him.

"Our discussions about whether we're going to help them or not is none of their business - what matters is the final decision and I'm not going to beat about the bush - I don't want to help them. Simple as that." I said folding my arms, looking sternly at Serge who didn't look like he liked my decision.

"Floyd, come on, they need our help!" Serge gasped slightly and continued. "You going to just turn them down and walk off?!" He said, his voice sounding tighter with annoyance.

"Damn right I will - convince me why I shouldn't - considering they'll just say 'thank you' and walk off, after we risk our fucking lives to find some piece of shit water float that sounds like it could be bought from a cheap-arse discount shop!?" I almost shouted back, forcing myself not to speak too loudly in case they overheard me. "But I will be a good person here - I will let them explain why we - and not anyone else - should get some lost possession that doesn't sound like it's worth much - in an area that sounds like it has death written all over it - electrocution is almost a certainty by the sound of 'Amp Plains!'" Serge inhaled in front of me, containing his frustration - at least he seemed to agree with my other proposal.

"...Fine, if you want to look like a complete mercenary. And you're forgetting that it's vital for an azurill to grow correctly." Serge said, grumbling and walking back towards where Marill was waiting.

"Hey, everyone pays when they ask for help in the form of guild notices - why should they get away scot-free with everything? Besides, what did they do to get their water float there anyway? They should really just pay the price for their stupidity!" I explained as Serge didn't pay attention to me and merely nudged me to explain to Marill our offer.

"Ahem...well, you see, asking for our help twice without payment is one thing, and we fail to see much value on potentially risking our lives by going to this very dangerous sounding place without payment like everyone else does. Not to mention that it was surely - no offence - pretty damn stupid to go to some dodgy place like that with something that's valuable to you." Funnily enough, Serge seemed more annoyed than Marill when I said this, since Serge was concerned about our reputation, but Marill almost looked like he was sort of agreeing with my comments when she replied.

"Well, I can fill you in on some details if it puts things into perspective...my family's in a huge amount of debt, so trying to commission a new one is out of the question as they're quite expensive and very difficult to make, and none of our family have the skills in order to make one...if only my dad were still alive...anyway, that and the fact that it's vital for Azurill's growth makes it of extreme importance that we get one. And as for why we know it's in Amp Plains...we should have told you this off the bat, but it was stolen, and yet, the thieves left a note telling us where they left it - I can't imagine what their motivation is aside from tormenting us for the fun of it...take a look yourself." He said and handed me a fairly small piece of parchment. It was written in a highly untidy scrawl, as if they were in a real rush to write it down, and it read as thus:

"Yeah, it was we who stole your precious float! Don't want Azurill to grow up lame with sagged skin over his limbs? You know well that it'll make it almost impossible for him to walk! It's in Amp Plains - go find it if it's that important to you, or go see those Team Conviction cunts for all I care - Serge would help anyone, haha! Don't be surprised if Floyd calls upon your debts though!" Well, two striking things about this, I noticed. One, they mentioned myself and Serge, and two, they never said who 'they' were. I was thinking it was perhaps the Drowzee bastard that we caught about a month back, but surely he'd still be in jail, and there was no notices of him breaking out in the criminal watch list. As a blind guess, I'd be saying it was Team Skull, and mentioned us for their seeming vendetta against us. I looked round at Serge slowly and handed it to him – now I had more of a reason to go – putting those scumbags in their place.

"Serge, go read that, and you'll see why I might change my mind about not helping them." I said and gazed just above Marill's head as I waited for Serge to read it.

"How does this give you much encouragement?" Serge asked me, and I shook my head - I was hoping Serge would have caught on by now.

"Serge, my friend, it gives us a chance to foil Team Skull - if it is them, and if we see them back here at some point, we can rub it in their faces. Or better yet, if we see them at Amp Plains, we can beat the living shit out of them for what they were doing to us - and the guild for that matter!" I said, smiling slightly. "We'll just be giving them what they deserve, we don't need to break any bones here, haha!"

"So much for being shy towards violence..." Serge said, shaking his head slightly. "Besides, it's part of the guild code to not be unnecessarily excessively violent towards wanted criminals - did you not read it?."

"Don't persuade me to change my mind - now, we might as well get this over and done with, right?" I folded my arms as a sign of 'take it or leave it', to which Serge grumbled at.

"You're in this for the wrong reasons..." Serge said, and bought a few supplies for the journey from the two kecleons, as we signalled a goodbye to Marill and Dusknoir who looked like he was about to leave and do whatever he was going to do as well. I heard the two of them banter with each other before we found out where the Amp Plains even were, as we looked across our map.

"That's actually fairly close by." Serge said "Won't even take an hour to get there. Oh, and promise me you won't give them too much injury if you possibly can?"

"I shall...injure them enough so they can't recover in time from their pains to fight against us when we drag them back to Treasure Town for them to be dealt with by the authorities. Good enough for you?"

"...Fine then, let's just hurry up and get this water float found then." Serge said as he decided to lead the way to our destination. It was pretty windy today, which made me feel a little conscious about my lack of weight, since I had to fight against it more than Serge - I was pretty light for my size, but I guess that was just to do with how snivys are. We never talked much again on this journey, only giving the occasional glance at each other. The clouds became more thick overhead as we seemed to get close, for we saw a sign that was placed, and it looked like it was barely standing. It read to us:

"The open fields ahead of you are known as The Amp Plains. The savages here are far more aggressive than you would expect, and is considered by the exploration committee to be a high risk area - only continue down this path if you absolutely have to. We accept no responsibility of death. Even some of the rocks on these fields seem to have electrical charges, so keep an eye out for any electrical activity. Do report any interesting finds to The Wigglytuff Guild - rewards included."

"...Fucking typical. Ah, we managed to beat up Groudon...kind of, we'll be just fine. I hope." I said, looking ahead - to be honest, it didn't really look too bad, but I knew it was natures way of deceiving us, and once again, I never had a genuine fear for my life - moderate injuries maybe, but myself dying this young was once again unfathomable. Still, upon going in, I realised I would get the occasional electric shock as some asshole pikachu attacked me on sight, but was quickly dispatched by Serge, who said something that made us both feel incredibly stupid.

"Ok...so we know it's around these parts...but it could be anywhere. This isn't exactly just a little field, and...they forgot to tell us what it actually looks like. Great." He said, looking a bit disheartened at figuring this out.

"I knew we shouldn't have-" My rant got cut immediately short as I was suddenly hit hard from the side by something that felt slightly heavier than me. I, for some reason felt strange aching burns on me as I was knocked back a fair distance and sent sprawling across the ground, with different sorts of pains jabbing angrily at me over different parts of my body. The surprise of it really made me short of breath, but all was to be OK - aside from the injury of course - as Serge swiftly dealt with the luxio that attacked me.

"Gah...oh, fuck, that hurts!" I said, slowly pushing myself off the ground and onto my feet, shaking slightly, feeling weakened by the hard attack. "I'm...hopefully going to be OK - I think now'd be a good time to be paranoid." And indeed, I was constantly looking around as myself and Serge went on, never looking in the same place for more than a second. These acts paid off as some elekid got cocky and tried to attack from behind, only to receive a slice from my sharpened tail leaf, which sent him fleeing and screaming in pain.

"You'd better run!" I yelled, as Serge sadly shook his head, to which I responded. "Look, the only reason I'm doing this is because Dialga, in his book, has told me that helping to uphold the law is a very good thing to do."

"Oh, shut up about him already!" Serge said, somewhat snapping at me. "Dialga this, Dialga that, you're putting a real heavy importance on someone who you've never seen or contacted before!" I had honestly no response to this, and it was unintentionally a cruel reminder that spreading the word of his righteousness was pretty much impossible here. The whole wandering around looking for this water float was both dull and nerve-wracking - everywhere looked the same here, and ambushes could happen at any time. I really did wish these savage pokemon weren't so damn territorial, but eventually, our luck really did kick in, for our seemingly mindless wandering around made us stumble across a mound in the plains in which we stood upon and looking down the other side.

We saw something fairly small and blue glint on a small area where the grasses had seemingly been cut short - the fairly large bluish band was seemingly purposefully put upon a boulder in roughly the middle of the clearing. This certainly checked of the first half of our mission, but what stopped it from being ideal was a pack of electrike, with two of its evolved forms which, as I expected, seemed to act as its leaders. They seemed to act very much like wolves, one of the 'regular animals' which miraculously avoided extinction on Earth in some parts of Canada, and are heavily conserved for not only conservation for the sake of it, but zoologists were very interested in learning about more predictable creatures and their differences from the pokemon who had ousted many of the animals to extinction via natural selection. Nature was a cruel mistress, as was the situation in which I was in. They didn't look like they were going to move any time soon as a third manectric dragged a carcass of only god knows what into the little clearing for the pack to feast on. I was no expert myself, but looking at some of the grasses around this area, I could tell they had very well claimed it as their territory.

"Doesn't look like they're going to move anytime soon..." I whispered so quietly, I had to go quite literally up to Serge's hear, which I assumed was at the side of his head, since they weren't exactly visible, probably underneath his fur.

"Looks like it, and I don't really want to leave without it...not coming here for nothing." He whispered back to me as we looked at them eat fairly quickly. "If we're going to get it, we might have to sneak our way to it - you might not be spotted if you go out from the long grass at that point there." He said, pointing to an area which put the water float right between the carcass, that thankfully wasn't too stench yet as it was still being munched upon, and the patch that Serge suggested.

"What do you mean, 'you' anyway - you're not suggesting I'm going alone, because that'd just be taking the piss." I said, but he looked real serious this time, and with those dangerous pokemon nearby, it was I, this time, who wasn't wanting to argue.

"I'll be in view, I'll put both my arms in the air if something's going wrong, ok?" I didn't like this, but like Serge, I didn't want this to be a wasted venture either - we'd gone this far, and I'd feel like shit if I returned empty handed, even if it was only a thank you - I'd be lying to myself if I didn't like praise and people thanking me, so it wasn't all for nothing.

"...Alright, but if I get spotted..." I said and forced horrific images of me being ripped apart by tooth and claw by them out of my head to maintain all cool and not make myself turn to jelly at the wrong moment. I kept a good distance away from the clearing, going through the grasses with care as to not make too much noise that might make someone suspicious, but the first part of the task was a success - I poked my head through the grasses and luckily found myself where Serge told me to be, and got down on all fours and crept forward. The concentration I put in was straining and I found it very hard not to panic as by body wobbled slightly - I peered down at every little stone, making sure not to knock any of them, thinking even that could give me way.

Breathing deeply was even harder to avoid and managing the fear here was even tougher than staying as hidden as possible, only glancing up at Serge for split seconds at the time, who was signalling that it was OK. However, as noiseless as I was and as low as I kept, both me and Serge overlooked something fatal - we took their sight and hearing into consideration. But not their smell. About five of them turned to look right me after briefly smelling the air, and within about half a second, I could tell they wanted me dead - for food or for merely defending their territory, I couldn't care less, and it was bizarrely enough here - even more than going against the groudon mirage for some reason, that I felt like I might die - the groudon incident felt obviously dangerous, but in a sort of unearthly way, that didn't seem fully tangible, but this threat felt very, very real, and hearing of humans becoming victim to these pokemon weren't unheard of.

There was no point in hiding now, and my maintenance of calm and focus had been very quickly swiped away as I rather skilfully grabbed the float with my vines as half of them started sprinting at me, clearly not seeming too exhausted from their little hunting trip. Fighting here? For the stupid! I turned my tail and couldn't help but let out a scream as I ran - as if I'd stand a chance against that many, even with Serge with me.

"Oh, god! Serge!" I said, yelling for help, but Serge merely seemed to stall, and images of him leaving me for dead as he sneaked away slipped into my mind - we got along well, sure, but there was a crunch time here as the environment itself seemed to slow down with every organ in my body firing on all cylinders as my eyes watered, blurring my vision. Serge got me into this, Serge, that bastard - it's his fault!

Those dark thoughts however were extremely short lived as it seemed like Serge was actually waiting for me, as he didn't seem to start running away until I had almost caught up - among all the fear making me tremble as I sprinted and my eyes felt like they were going to explode in a shower of blood, and I could barely being able to see where I was going. We quickly glanced at each other as we charged through the thick grasses, staving off their unrelenting pursuit, hearing them run behind us, making sounds that would resemble a muffled faulty machine gun among ominous growls and barks. We had honestly had no direction in which they were running, not to mention there were some rotten looking trees ahead that we had never seen before. Slowing down? Not until my body would literally give way! But whether that'd matter was under threat as I heard one of them suddenly having a burst of speed, and in desperation, I swiped my tail and used razor leaf without even looking, stalling it, but causing me to stumble due to the awkward balance shift I had to do. I stopped myself from falling completely by planting my right hand on the ground to push off, when I felt something peculiar - the grass here felt quite dry for whatever reason, but I hadn't time to think about it, but even through I was still fleeing for my life, the cogs inside my brain were ticking, and they continued to do so as I looked at the trees ahead through a blurred veil of sweat and tears - If I were quick and strong enough...

"Serge, run just in front of me, I might be able to get them off us!" I yelled as he trusted me without question as we ran within very close proximity from each other as I gasped and breathed on Serge's neck as I looked firmly at a certain branch as if it were some sort of saviour - which is what I hoped to hell it was! My jelly-like legs could be released and my vines could do the work as I sped up slightly and grabbed Serge from behind and shot both of my shoulder vines right at the branch, intending to grapple onto them and then pulled with every muscle fibre, with all the force with all my physical and mental strength could muster - if I could get us both up on there...I doubt they could climb.

This would have worked, and I even felt myself leave the ground, but for all the desperate hidden strength I had, pulling us both with my vines alone - it wasn't going to happen at all as I shrieked in pain as I felt like my shoulders could split apart. I had no idea how strong they were - strong enough to lift me alone, but not both of us as I swore I felt muscle rip inside my own body, bring stiffness and searing pain to my upper body muscles. I dropped Serge immediately, as a result and immediately retracted them in, which caused the pain to surge up even more. But pain at this time was a mere distraction in the face of immanent death, it wasn't going to obstruct my running, at least mentally, but all this dry grass and fallen branches had me think of another idea, and this time, my eyes were looking at Serge, who looked like he was starting to struggle to run as he fell behind me slightly.

"Serge, this stuff is so dry it could easily catch fire! Burn it, it'll scare them off!" I said in between chocked gasps, every world labouring my heavy, fast breathing, but Serge did something I thought was disgraceful and offensively selfless that for a moment, made me hate the guy.

"But we'll destroy those nests up there - see those taillows up there? What if they can't fly? We'd be killing them if the trees themselves catch fire!" Normally, I'd have the same objections as my religious values have taught me that ending a human's or pokemon's life is totally unacceptable and borderline irredeemable, but in this moment of peril, such teachings were put aside by my reptilian part of the brain who cared only for survival at all costs.

"DO IT YOU CUNT!" I screamed at him, stopping for a brief second to shout at him - he was falling behind anyway, and he looked up at me with a look of disbelief of how I got so pissed off at him for a brief second, filling me with a sense that I had crossed the line with him, and yet, he spun around and blew flames behind him, torching the electrikes that were the closest to us and the dried grass and dead branches started catching fire very quickly. From the other side of the spreading fire, the pack was rather cut off, and I began to wonder if they'd bother to continue hunting us down - we wouldn't exactly be much of a meal to them anyway, so it'd make sense, at least with normal biology logic. The taillows in the treetops shrieked in fear as the fire did indeed start to climb the tree, but were fortunately saved by their parent swellows from each and every family of them around these parts by gripping them gently in their talons. I just about fell over at that point in relief and exhaustion and leaned against a small boulder on the ground - there were sure an odd amount of them here.

"We're alive...oh, and hey, I'm still holding this." I said, raising the water float in my hand. "And to think we'll receive nothing more than a mere thank you for it..."

"Well that's all fine and dandy, Floyd, but that there - that was one of the most awful decisions I had to make there in my entire life, and you thrust it upon me! I could have been a killer!" Serge said, sounding very whiny to me.

"You ungrateful bastard - NOBODY or NOTHING died there, and the only...uh...collateral damage, so to speak, that we caused is wrecking the homes of a few savages! We are NOT going anywhere this dangerous again unless they pay us fucking royally!" I said, snapping at him, getting right in the snotty guy's face. Serge's attitude was almost unbearable right now, and in spite of the reassurances we made with each other at Fogbound Lake, it seemed to crumble away even worse than before.

"...Look, I won't lie to you - I really don't like your attitude - at all. In fact, I despise it, but again, you did save our lives, but just credit me on the fact I made you do it, alright?" I went on for a bit, while Serge merely scowled at me - the damn bleeding heart with far too much heroism, dragging me on ventures like this - this exploration deal was now truly getting to me - as much as I abhorred his general views on this, I was a snivelling coward in comparison - I couldn't lie to myself here. I watched the fire burn the dead clump of trees who looked like they were honestly about to fall down anyway regardless of the flames, when he heard very familiar growling to the right - a small pack of the hunters had simply decided to go around the inferno to kill us!

"Oh, fuck!" I yelled, and I was about to run, but as I saw electrical discharge come off what seemed to be the leader manectric, an explosion seemed to suddenly happen right in front of them, but it didn't seem to be of flames, and it was very dark in colour for whatever reason, and boy it was powerful - I felt the gusts of wind from it nail me in the face, obscuring my vision, and then, our saviour reviled himself.

"...Dusknoir, what timing!" I said, outright jumping for joy and relief as the pack got up and ran from us, and I looked round at him again, folding his arms with a very business-like manner.

"I heard you were coming here without knowing the dangers of this time of year at The Amp Plains - there should be more notices that many packs of these pokemon are at their most territorial before the mating season - they'll give great chase towards pretty much every living thing that isn't part of their pack. Many people have been killed by them at this time of year - it was fortunate I could get here in time." Dusknoir said to us, and both Serge and I were in agreement - we were both extremely grateful for Dusknoir pretty much saving us from being ravaged to death.

"Keep in mind, it's also a good thing Marill told me - still, it's not a total loss, considering you did recover the water float successfully." After giving many gracious thank yous, we started heading back to Treasure Town alongside Dusknoir - he was actually very interesting to listen to with his own tales of his exploring, as Serge was asking many questions about him and where he'd all been. I could tell that Serge really wanted to tell of our grandest triumph at discovering the truth behind Fogbound lake, but given the promise we made, I was hoping he'd keep that to help keep my respect for him.

"Apparently you two have had a great run of successes for such a new exploration duo, I've heard from some of the townsfolk about your team's strange and miraculous intuition for problem solving out on the field - how did you know where that drowzee criminal was with no information on his whereabouts, or any other details on that matter, or how there was a cave behind that waterfall in which you just took a leap of faith and dived through it, risking moderate injury in the process." He said, seeming quite interested in how I done it. I knew how I could do it...sort of, it also made me think about something - all the visions I got so far...they were all damn useful, and I had got no visions so far of something of trivial importance, which only led me to even more damn questions about what happened to me.

"Well there is actually a good reason why we seem to be improbably good at problem solv-" He was cut off by yours truly by a sharp kick to the leg, since it was obvious he was about to spill the beans.

"Ow!" Serge said to me in a tone that was now full blown annoyed. "Watch it!"

"I don't like it when people break their word to me..." I said in a very low voice so Dusknoir wouldn't hear. "You said you weren't going to tell anyone - you disappoint me." I said before turning away from him - the brief look on Serge's face only told me that he had just about had enough of me - but if I were to keep this up with him, he'd need to go my way to an extent. Dusknoir looked a little confused at all this, or at least it's how he seemed, it was very hard to read his expressions having a very odd form for a pokemon.

"...Anyway, did you ever catch those responsible for this? Marill said that you expected that it was all a ploy by Team Skull - nasty group, they are." Dusknoir said to us, slowing down slightly as we could see Treasure Town in view now that we were out of ambush range.

"Havn't seen 'em in a couple of weeks for better or worse. I would really like a shot about teaching them a lesson and then bringing them all into custody, but if someone else does it, I wouldn't be complaining either - they're criminals, and should receive punishment and justice for what they done, after all, it's this sort of thing that separates us from the savages, and is the foundation of civilization, no?" I continued, looking up at a now very pleased looking Dusknoir.

"Great, great attitude!" He said to me, sounding very uplifted by my little speech. "Someone who knows the grounding bricks of a society! Dialga has smiled upon us!" It was how casually he spat out the word 'Dialga' that made it an even more shocking, yet joyous discovery about him - it was almost like he was another attendee of The Dialgan Church, in which the way he approved of my views on the importance of a strong justice system in any society, and the fact that someone else has heard of Dialga...this conversation was getting shifted right to that immediately!

"You've heard of Dialga?! Oh...oh MAN this is great! Finally, someone else who knows about the righteous words of his! Barely anyone here's even heard of him, let alone his guidance, how'd you find out about him?" I asked, and he chuckled slightly.

"I would be asking you the same question, but it's not of terrible importance, now is it?" He paused for a second, gazing upwards and turned to me again and said. "Perhaps we should become more acquainted - meeting another follower of Dialga's word would be most interesting for me in these parts, considering this place seems to be devoid of any faith structures, where the people here seem to have their own theories that no one else seems to believe in. But we both know the truth." He said to me as I began to like this guy more and more, as his link to a part of my life was supplemented by the aged friendliness and highly formal tone, who in the oddest way reminded me of my father.

"Why of course, I'd love to!" I said and pointed towards the sun which was starting to approach the horizon of which the calm sea rested past the beach where I wound up in this world.

"Well, I do have things I...no, actually I don't." Dusknoir said, looking like he stumbled a bit on his own thoughts. "Yes, I already done that, say, are you in a hurry to get anywhere?"

"Not for a couple of hours, but I might as well return the water float to Marill first, why are you asking?" I said looking at the water float, then back at up him.

"Just for some casual conversation really - as much as I am enthusiastic about being an explorer, there are other aspects in life that interest me, and in Treasure Town, it seems to just be a sort of base for exploration services, so as you could imagine, that's all people want to talk to me about."

"I get that too, actually." I said back to him as Serge remained very quiet, not joining in at all. "Want to meet in the Spinda Coffee Shop in ten minutes or so?"

"Somewhere a bit more isolated would be better, I'll get bombarded with 'how do you do it?' questions, I need to warm up for dealing with them tomorrow." He said and laughed heartily. "How about the beach? Your friend can come if he likes." I honestly expected Serge to instantly decline, but for some reason, he said right there and then that he was coming - perhaps he was curious about the faith that me and Dusknoir shared, but I wasn't hear to question it. It didn't take us long at all for us to find Marill as he was seen running up to us as we began to walk into town.

"You're safe! Oh what Dusknoir said at what goes on in the Amp Plains at this time of year, I was actually worried sick that I had sent you into somewhere life-threatening!" He said, squeaking ever so slightly as he spoke in a great hurry to us.

"You did send us somewhere life-threatening Marill." I replied and folded my arms. "Still, you didn't know, so I guess I can't really put much blame on you."

"And as a bonus, we did find and recover your water float!" Serge said and handed it to him fairly slowly, as if presenting it at the same time, of which he took with extreme gratitude, almost bouncing on the spot with happiness.

"Oh, this is a relief that you couldn't possibly understand! Azurill can grow up safely now, thanks to you - me and my mother are going to start teaching him to swim first thing tomorrow...uh...sorry that I have nothing in return..." He said, switching his glee to a look of deep shame.

"That's ok, considering it was that important to Azurill." Serge said, clearly not minding as much as me, but even myself, it all turned out OK in the end.

"Look, I promise I'll make it up to you one day - really, I do!" He said and ran off before I could say anything back to him.

"Well...that wraps that up! All that's left is Team Skull." I said in a cheery voice before shifting to a lower tone. "But we can leave dealing with those cunts for another time I guess, although they're going to get in real shit once I find them." I said to Serge, giving him a look to let him know that he had better help me, which again, Serge did not like.

"Is revenge really the best thing to do Floyd?" He said, frowning and tilting his head to the side. I inhaled and raised my nose in the air slightly and looked down at him.

"Can you not line up the pieces? It all adds up to one thing - this was all a ploy for Team Skull to have us killed, Serge, killed!" I said in a commanding voice, not really caring if people overheard us or not.

"We can't even be sure if it was them! And I really don't want to follow you in your vengeance quest, I'm sorry." He said shaking his head and holding his ground firmly.

"Catching criminals are included in the guild duties, are they not?" I said before tailing off on my rant. "Ah, stuff it, we can discuss this later, I'm off to see Dusknoir, coming?" Serge nodded and followed me round to the beach where Dusknoir was already there. It was deserted apart from him, which was honestly a little surprising - the early sunset made this entire area look very picturesque, with the sunbeams bouncing off the gentle sea waves, giving a calming atmosphere that didn't dazzle us remotely.

"Ah, there you are, Snivy, Cyndaquil." He said, and it was then I realised I somehow missed telling him our names, but Serge for whatever reason, jumped the gun even faster than I did.

"Oh, us two like to be called by our birth names, I know it's not very common around here - you may call me Serge." He said and shook Dusknoir's hand, while Dusknoir ended up shaking his entire arm. "I wanted to know something, actually, and it's not about exploring." He said, and Dusknoir looked a little surprised at this, yet pleased at the same time. "You're also a 'Dialgan' much like my exploration partner, and his explanation of what a Dialgan was - it was confusing - think you could explain it to me, I'm curious."

"Well, Dialgans are followers and worshippers of the deity of time himself, Dialga, and not only does he govern time and ensure it's stability, he also gave us good rules on which to live by to help become a better person, that promotes a stable community. The rules are unflinching and rigid, so it gives you a very good sense of right and wrong. It would take a while to explain them, but some of the moral values we have is that lying is an absolute crime, and should not be done under any circumstance, not even white lying, as is murder of any pokemon, and that wrongdoing must somehow be punished, but only as long as the punishment is not worse than the wrongdoing, for example, imprisoning someone for a year for only stealing a hundred poke is definitely out of order. A hundred thousand stolen and then a years sentence would become fair. Overall, we value fair treatment over treatment that makes people happy - once we have a firm justice system in society, then we can focus on bringing happiness." Dusknoir said to Serge with evident pride. It was amazing - the teachings of Dialga have truly reached this world somehow! But as to how, I had no idea, perhaps Dialga himself made a prophet of one of these civilized pokemon to spread the word of the lands of the south where Dusknoir came from - it seemed like the most likely option.

"One thing I don't understand, as interesting as this is...how do you know Dialga even exists anyway? I mean, you've never met or seen him before." Serge said, and Dusknoir responded in the same I'd respond, if Serge didn't ask me the same question when I was in a flustered mood.

"Through the ancient texts of the book the first prophet wrote, and the others that followed afterwards." Dusknoir replied. "In hindsight, I should have brought my copy of The Righteous Tome with me so I could show you personally, but there's not much I can do about that now unfortunately." Serge still looked very sceptical of all this, and it was obvious to both Dusknoir and myself, that, sadly, he wasn't going to take any of it in, which really didn't come as a surprise to me at all.

"I dunno Dusknoir, I just can't see myself committing to it unfortunately." Serge said, which I couldn't help but feel was a white lie to avoid sounding like he was snubbing our beliefs - indeed, reading Serge's true feelings was becoming easier now, whereas when we first me, it was all but impossible, especially with the species difference in us.

"That's a bit of a shame really, you're missing out on teachings to attain higher moral standards and understanding, but I don't think I can do anything more to convince you that our way is the best path to self-improvement." I honestly agreed with Dusknoir - something I had been called arrogant for was saying this sort of thing to other people, and yet, they could be right in a way - I did honestly feel a slight sense of superiority because of my faith, but it never seemed to rub off too badly on people - a lot of Dialga's teachings were ultimately common sense really found in most good people.

"Anyway, I was wondering - where did you hear about Dialga? You seem to worship him in very similar ways compared to me - I couldn't help but notice that. You snivys aren't native here, and..." What he was saying vastly unsettled me - another one trying to find out my background information?!

"The lands over there!" I pointed quickly across the sea as I interrupted him out of panic, and continued speaking in a very rushed tone. "There's a few of us who have heard - some of them were good friends of mine. Yep, that's where I heard!"

"...Really? There's been no information of any signs of the faith ever reaching those lands according to what I know, and believe me, I know a lot about the Dialgan faith." Dusknoir replied back to me, giving me an unsure look with his one eye, making me quite unsettled with it's strange gaze, but what made me really unsettled was that I panicked and lied to a fellow Dialgan - I just couldn't help it, but at the same time, I felt I could trust the guy - we did have a lot in common after all, and I could trust him to keep his word, so perhaps it was time...

"...Dusknoir...what I told you...was...ok, from what I'm about to tell you, you must promise to never tell anyone aside from Serge who already knows, understood?" I said, looking right at him to get every subtle movement down in my brain, to make sure his promise was genuine. I trusted the guy, obviously, but this was a guarded secret of mine.

"Certainly, I will not tell anyone at all about this, I can promise you that." He replied, nodded, and waited for me to continue.

"Ok, please don't believe me to be mentally insane or anything but...what I told you where I was and where I heard the faith...it was complete bullshit, I'm sorry I felt as though I had to lie to protect myself. As a Dialgan to another Dialgan, I owe you honesty...I've havn't even been a snivy for even two months yet. I...uh, oh god...I was a human for over nineteen years of my life - my memory got skewered on how it happened, but the next moment I know after being drunk at a party, I ended up here - in this world, in this body. And I can tell you, I'd pay just about any price to get back home - everything I do is going towards that goal - I miss my friends and family, and I'm pretty damn sure they miss me as well, not to mention I miss the far superior human lifestyle, no offence meant about that guys. You think I wanted to be a explorer? It's all a ploy to try and see if my explorations could lead me to some answers - and I have had no luck with that whatsoever." I said, exhaling deeply due to letting some very private information leak to Dusknoir, but as I said this, I thought of something that could make me have a glimmer of hope - I had faith in Dusknoir that if he found any hint of the way home and the answers I'm looking for, he could tell me, that is, if he didn't think I was raving mad. He looked at me, but not with an expression of 'he's absolutely crazy', but with a sense of raw wonder, and seemed completely fascinated by all this.

"...Well...that does explain your odd curiosity about the legend of the human race when you first talked to me..." Dusknoir looked rather distant when he said this, evidently thinking hard about what I said. "This case is indeed extremely odd, but humans have been here before. Say, do you remember converting to Palkianism before...well, grim theory as it is - you may have died and impressed Palkia enough to let you live once again as the pokemon soul you had, but that's as close as I can get - I don't even believe souls exist, and the concept of humans having pokemon souls is preposterous!"

"Well I really hope that wasn't the case! No, I don't think I'd ever convert to that lie-ridden excuse for a religion - but even if I did, would I not come into this world as a newborn?" I responded.

"Ok, we can rule that out as a possibility." Dusknoir said, before I spontaneously launched another question at him.

"Say, you've also heard of the Palkian faith?" I suddenly asked.

"Oh, yes, it exists of where I come from as well - unfortunately. As with the Dialgan faith in the lands of the south, there are people in full time employment to try and uncover for certain how the news of the faiths ended up where I come from. I know for certain it was originally intended for humans due to the texts clearly depicting the prophets and the people mentioned in them having very similar descriptions to the people described in the righteous texts. The most popular theory is that humans visited this place long ago, leaving copies of the text in hoping the pokemon would eventually understand their meaning - but as you can imagine, that theory is full of holes - they're still struggling to find information to this very day." Dusknoir informed me, and, while making me curious I went back on topic.

"So, while I hate to ask this, is there anyway you think you can help me get home?" I asked, wanting to get straight to the point.

"...Quite unlikely, but I can keep a look out for anything that might resemble a lead for you if you'd like. It might help if you told me anything else that might have happened to you that was strange, it might be a clue, Snivy - wait, I never got your name, many apologies, what is it?" Dusknoir said to me, in which I responded very quickly.

"It's Floyd - and I very much like to be called by it - I know it wasn't intentional, bet being called 'Snivy' feels a bit degrading - not only is it a sore reminder of what happened to me, but in human culture, we always refer to each other by our birth, parent-given names if possible." I said, chuckling slightly at the culture difference. Dusknoir seemed to, once again, be deep in thought.

"...Ok! Good, Floyd it is then!" He said, sounding a bit happier than usual for some strange reason. "Floyd, good to meet you!" He said, shaking my hand gently. "Is that how humans greet each other when they learn each other's names?"

"Haha, close enough. Oh, and what you said about any other curious things - this is almost as big as me becoming a pokemon and going into a different dimension or whatever - a few times while I was here, I occasionally pass out, and, as bizarre as it sounds, I get some sort of vision of a future event - and a past one, that happened one time. I take it that means nothing to you?" I said, sounding a little stupid when I said it - I'm honestly completely amazed how Dusknoir was believing me, but the trust between two Dialgans who were friends with each other was very high usually, and this seemed to be showing in spades here.

"It does, actually - I even know what that ability is called - the dimensional scream, as named by someone I knew who had mastered it completely - he...was a very good friend of mine..." Dusknoir said to me, tailing off towards the end.

"'Was' a good friend?" I asked him, scratching my head, and looking round to see if Serge was still there - he was, and boy, he looked bored, the cheeky sod, as the dimming sunlight set in as the 'sun' was now touching the horizon. "What happened?"

"...He died." He said after a brief delay. "But I can tell you what he told me about the dimensional scream. As you know, it can give occasional insights into the past and future, and seems to occur when you touch something related to a strong doubt you have in your head. After knowing the master of the dimensional scream for some time, I noticed that when I was around him, he could often find lost items by touching a chest of draws to find something that he forgot to put in there that he had lost, and sure enough, he'd get a vision of where he last put it, and he'd find it with total ease. To start with, he said he could only do it when I was with him, and he came to the conclusion that it was far easier to get a vision when someone you trust greatly is in close proximity to you."

"Later on, his son picked up the ability to do so as well, but by this stage, the master didn't need me, as he had become so well practised, that he could send himself into a vision wherever he pleased, but he was getting very old by this point, and passed away a few months after he had claimed to become fully enlightened and able in the art of using the dimensional scream." He paused again, looking a little sad over discussing his deceased friend. "I should really be referring him as Drapion - he never liked me calling him 'Enlightened One' over an ability in which he said that he got by ways that not even he knew - he said he got it by luck, and, sadly, could never figure out where the ability came from. I also have no idea how one gets such an ability, but I can tell you - it annoyed all of the pokemon who are born with psychic powers since he achieved what they could not - total remote viewing. A xatu family were especially annoyed since as a side effect of mastering his ability, completely drove them out of their family fortune telling business. It's too bad he never figured out how he got it, or his son for that matter, or else it could be a very good clue on what happened to you. Aside from those two, you're the only one I know who has it. I hope this knowledge can help you in some way."

"I can at least thank you for telling me what you know. Say, perhaps we might be able to find someone who also has the dimensional scream - maybe they will know more about it's origins." I suggested to him, hoping he'd help me with it.

"That will be very difficult to do - a lot harder than finding a needle in a haystack for sure, and considering it will take ages to ask everyone...I'll keep an eye out regardless, because I can imagine it must be painful to be separated from the life you had before. Don't give up hope just yet." He said before letting out what I think was supposed to be a yawn, but coming from a pokemon like Dusknoir, it sounded extremely odd and grated.

"Well, I'm getting tired now - I'll be going to sleep soon, we'll see each other again soon, OK?" He asked - it was rather strange having someone who sounded like he was getting on a bit befriend me like this, but it was a friendship I valued highly.

"Sure thing - keep an eye out for anything that might help me - I still have hope left myself." I said before waving goodbye to him, and then turned to Serge, who was merely staring at the sunset on a rock by himself.

"Oh, that you done now? We're probably late for the guild dinner, we should get back now." Serge said as he started walking back towards the guild. I really couldn't help but notice Serge had a rather large bone to pick with me, taking my absolute order to him very harshly, giving me the occasional unfriendly look at me - there was going to be a serious talk after dinner, I just knew it.

"You're late! Your meal was made and you weren't there!" Chatot said, ranting and complaining as we walked by him. "It's not thrown out, but it's cold - you look starved, go eat it now and get to bed!" Neither me or Serge paid him any attention as we ate without saying a word to each other. The cold dinner lost a lot of it's flavour, but it was still fine to eat, as I saw Serge eat quickly in frustration and left to go to his room, in which I followed him in a few minutes later to find him sitting on his bed staring right at me.

"I can see you already guessed that we need to talk." He said, looking fairly intimidating now that he finally meant business. I sat down on my bed cross-legged and looked back at him, staring right into his eyes as he stared right into mine - our firm and unwavering eye contact set the mood for the conversation that was about to follow.

"I learned quite a bit more about you today Floyd - I learned the nature of your dogmatic faith in the ideas of revenge, and the fact that you would have me risk someone else's life to save your own. I'm not happy about this, Floyd, not happy." He said, shifting position slightly before continuing. "Your trust in Dusknoir also seems really off-key for you, and I can't decide if something's changed, or your now starting to show your true colours."

"Serge...that incident where I ordered you to torch the dried trees saved our lives, and above all else, the taillow chicks were rescued. Nobody died, and can't you understand this from my perspective - no, wait, you don't have to, because we were in the exact same boat - I was completely shit scared for my life, can you really blame me for doing that?! Besides, it'd be down to shit parenting if the mummies and daddies didn't come!" I said, raising my voice slightly, checking if the door behind us was closed, which, thankfully it was.

"Floyd, at the time, you wouldn't have even cared if they died or not, as long as it saved your own life - you didn't care if it would have turned me into a killer or not. I'm finding it very hard to even consider forgiving you for that, but I guess it really does reflect on who you always were - someone who's ultimately only out for themselves - I really should have paid attention to the signs before all this." Serge said, standing up, his chest going in and out due to the heavy breathing.

"Dammit Serge, I was concerned for your safety as well! You think I only care about myself? Wrong!" I said, also standing up, gritting my teeth as my rant continued. "My friends make my life worth living! I'm repulsed by the mere thought that you'd say that about me!"

"I'm really not sure whether I should believe that or not. Or at least, you only really care about them if they are part of your little belief group - would that explain you suddenly becoming good friends with Dusknoir, enough to tell him who you really are?!" Serge was getting impatient, but me - I felt more than impatience building within me - I felt anger starting to make it's way across my body, pushing the blood faster, making the heart quicken, making my saliva taste like blood.

"My best friend - Omar - is a fucking atheist! You're wrong! Wrong! And - this might be a fucking revelation to you - but I wouldn't have him ANY other way! He's twice the friend you ever were!" The last comment made me feel odd saying - I didn't feel right comparing friends, but the building anger was starting to make me lose rationality quickly.

"So it's a human superiority thing then? It wouldn't surprise me that in your world that the pokemon are made to always play second fiddle to the humans! Why do you think I should even help you anymore, you selfish, arrogant-" It was here, where I could feel my body just about explode in rage as my teeth ground against each other without me even consciously doing it, and my fists clenched so hard that they made my palms hurt, and now, I blew my anger all over Serge.

"I SAVED YOUR FUCKING MISERABLE LIFE! If it were not ME, there wouldn't even be a YOU! And it's THEN you consider me to a douche?! You're pathetic!" I screamed at him, roughing my vocal chords as I let my anger loose. "I was the one who got you this far! I was the one who got your cowardly ass to become an explorer! And in my life-saving decision, YOU CONDEMN ME FOR IT?!" Serge didn't respond for a good ten second, before responding in a far quieter tone than I yelled at.

"...I think it's time we called an end to Team Conviction." Serge said, in which I realised I done something unusual here - agree with him.

"Ah, good fucking riddance then - this team was useless to me anyway! I won't be seeing you again in a hurry! Can't believed you thought so little of me..." I said, picking up my bag and storming out, hearing mutters of '...and that's why it's recommended to only sign up as guild members as a solo explorer' from Loudred's room. I had no time for this exploration shit anymore - all it got me was for me to almost have my life ended prematurely.

I stormed into the guild library, my feet hitting hard of the ground with each step - the raw anger making me so desperate to flashback to what Uxie said to me about Giratina being a way home. I was so furious, I did not care that my mind was considering to try to find the most evil entity to have ever existed to help me, because with the anger, also came a sense of urgency to get back home. Before, I felt like I obviously would like to return home as soon as possible, but it didn't come with a sense of urgency to do so, until now. I was raking through the library quickly, desperately trying to find information in the 'unconfirmed legends' section for those looking for things on places and pokemon that have not been confirmed to exist yet, of which I've seen Wigglytuff look through a few times while I was here. The largest, heaviest book was the one I took out and made a very quick look at the contents - Giratina was mentioned there - this will do just fine as I climbed up the ladder, annoying Chatot.

"You can't take those books outside of the building, and it's late anyway - you can use it for some bed time reading if you must, and-" He said in his irritating squawking voice, in which I responded harshly to.

"FUCK OFF!" I said and walked briskly out of the guild with heavy footsteps, ignoring Chatot's promises of a grave punishment when I returned. I had no intentions of returning. Ever. This book pretty much offered me my only hope of getting home, but I felt it was time for a couple of drinks at the coffee shop - it opened late, and I was thirsty for a drink.

"Two house specials. Now." I said to Spinda who gave me an odd look, considering I was often far more polite than this, but he got me them without a word as I paid for them and guzzled them both down in the space of a minute.

"Hoo-boy, that was fast, you in a hurry or something?" Heracross said to me from across the table, and I looked up at him fairly slowly.

"Yes." I said flatly and left the underground building without saying another word. I was pretty sure the drinks weren't alcoholic, as I really didn't think alcohol had really been 'discovered' here yet, but they did make me feel a bit odd from drinking them so fast. They did seem to calm me down a bit as I jogged over to the beach to read what the book had to say - it was almost dark, the sun almost completely vanishing below the horizon, setting a sombre glow on the beach. For the sake of memories, I sat by the rock pool where I first discovered I had become a pokemon and the horrors of what had happened to me had been realised, and now more than ever, loneliness really set in hard.

The nostalgic sense really started to set in - the memories of playing with my band with Omar, attending my father's church services - so enlightening, and appreciating every damn fucking moment of my human life - even suffering the month during and after my parent's divorce - it really didn't seem so bad anymore, and neither was the pathetic scrutiny I got from the Arceus worshippers. I could have cried watching the sadistic path in front of me to pretty much my last hope of returning to bliss and happiness - having to consider trying to visit Giratina? I had doubts whether it'd even be possible, and what would happen if I did? He would more likely torture me until I begged for death than help me - would it even be worth trying?!

I stood up for a moment and sank to my knees so slowly in despair, that it barely made an imprint in the sand - this cruel, cruel joke that whoever done this to me must have been revelling in fiendish glee - either that or it was one of the worst and unusual accidents of nature that so happened to centre around me. The happy times of my life all came to memory, all of them taunting me as if to say 'look what you once had! You gonna risk it all to get them back?' Times of getting drunk at cheap nights in late-opening pubs, times of just relaxing in front of my computer, playing or reading anything I wanted to - I was in control, which was more than I could say about my time here now. I slumped down coming to the full realisation that I was just being pushed around hopelessly by the world as all my anger had dissolved into pure depression, making me feel like I had become almost twice as heavy as before as I lay down on the sand, weeping ever so slightly. There was no third option of this - either face Giratina or stay here and be miserable and stay in this wretched world forever, and continue to be taunted by past memories.

"I'll see you all again!" I screamed at the sky, choking on my misery and desperation, tears starting to leak out of my eyes and onto my face. "I promise you, I fucking promise you all! We'll be a family again! The golden days – I'll revisit those precious golden days! I'm returning now! I've had enough, and I'm going beyond the ends of this very dimension to reach you! I'll desecrate my very being for you all! Such as the price I'll pay for you!" I coughed heavily, holding my head, thinking about what I was truly setting myself up for, and considered my options.

And after some time I knew what had to be done.


	13. The Blasphemous Pilgrimage

Pokemon Unknown Chasms

Part 19: The Blasphemous Pilgrimage 

The book in which I held in my hands was almost as heavy as my spike of depression I had mere moments ago was filled to the brim I didn't care about, and there was only a few pages on might have been Giratina. There was no description of the abomination let alone any drawings, showing that they knew even less. The only thing I was really banking on is how they knew from archives that this was the last place the humans were seen going, and that they mentioned looking for Giratina. I did help but wonder what he'd look like, but come to think of it, there was very little description of Dialga himself either, even in the Righteous Tome, but appearances were not as important as character and morality. It did indeed mention the three humans that helped the pokemon achieve civilized standards, and how the last that was heard of them was in their efforts to get back home and it said clearly that they were going to see if they can find Giratina, since they felt their 'noble duties' were done.

Nasty thoughts entered my head there - did they succeed in reaching him? Did Giratina let them go back to their own world, but then I slowly started to smile - I remembered that they did for sure - how else could they have passed off the story as one of the world's most controversial fictional books of all time? It became clear to me then that Giratina for whatever reason helped them return home - there was hope for me yet! It was also documented that Team Raider, widely considered to be the best and most talented exploration team, tried to follow in the human's footsteps, but were forced to turn back due to heavy risk of cave ins, since Rhyperior was too big to fit in the smaller caverns, and he was highly uncertain about burrowing with description being quite unsettling - the citation was from Rhyperior himself, and described strange lights seeming from the gaps in the rocks, giving a very faint illumination to the caverns, and from Gallade, their leader also noted that this deep, there was no sign of life and that the light from his flaming torch seemed to be drawn towards the rocks, rather than illuminating the cavern as it should have done, as he went alone a bit deeper, but decided not to risk going too far alone, and that by the end of his little solo venture, couldn't tell that the rock walls were even of stone anymore.

It sounded mind-twisting to say the least, but it'd take more than that to put me off, since I know that Giratina could send me back if he wanted to, and has sent humans back before, so it was definitely a hope for me, and it made sense - going by Giratina's band of cultists, Giratina should in theory want me to, given that returning the pokemon in the human world to this world was his goal. Reading upon what else they found in there, I could be easily savaged to death by the dwellers in there, but that was nothing new in this world, but I might be able to wake up the Kecleon shop keeper brothers to serve me - I realised it'd be a must do in order to go all the way inside. Throughout all my moping and thinking, I had not realised that time had passed me by very quickly - the sky was darkening quickly, and I realised that looking back at Treasure Town, there were only a couple of people outside, obviously returning home after having drinks at Spinda's. I wiped the sand off my feet as I walked into town and approached the shop - they were indeed closed for the night, but I had enough money off me to persuade them to serve me. I rudely bashed the back door to awaken them - I needed to see what they had this time that could help me. I heard a few groans from inside coming from the brothers before they started speaking.

"Who the hell is that...?" One of them, still sounding asleep.

"Who the hell is that?!" The other one said, sounding alarmed and next thing I knew I was suddenly attacked when the angry green kecleon swung open the door and shot it's tongue at me so fast at my forehead it outright dazed me before he pounced on me, knocking me to the ground with a pissed off looking kecleon staring at me.

"...Floyd?! What the crap? Are you the worst shoplifter ever or do you REALLY want to see us? I'm guessing it's the latter." He said, getting off and helping me up. "I'm making no apology for that, your not hurt, and you scared the crap out of me!" He said, scowling at me. "Anyway, what is it, speak quickly, I'm waking up again in five hours!"

"Complete emergency shopping, can't wait until first thing tomorrow morning, business is my own." I said with efficiency, not wanting to waste his time. "If you're not selling anything to me now, I'm not buying anything at all, your choice." They both rolled their eyes in frustration, and the purple one yawned and muttered to himself.

"I'm gonna pass out in tiredness mate, can you deal with him?" He said in a muffled drawl that was very hard to make out, making the green one look even more annoyed.

"Fine then - come Floyd, let's not waste any more time." He said and led me into the shop. "Right, what do you need?"

"I was hoping you could tell me-" I said, but got cut off by Kecleon who looked like he was about to throw a fit.

"Aw for crying out loud! Are you deliberately wasting my time as a prank?! I'll be filing this as a breach of the peace to the authorities you-" This time, however, it was my turn to cut him off as I leaned over the counter.

"Ok, I'm going in a deep, long and very twisted cave alone - apparently Team Raider - yes, them - they had a bit of bother with the twisted conditions and savages there - your recommendations?" I said, again, being efficient - I didn't want to annoy the guy further - I needed supplies badly, but dealing with this guy? I really should have chanced it and tried to steal some of the shit I needed...

"My recommendation? Don't go there - if what you say is true, then you have a bigger chance falling asleep in Oblivion Forest and waking up several hours later unharmed." He said, trailing off ever so slightly at the end. "...But...if you let me drop all consciousness of you going there for whatever psychotic reason and considering you're probably doing some elaborate scheme to have yourself killed...we do actually have something that we developed a few months ago that hasn't been tested yet. It could make you ill, but me and my brother call them 'seeds of invisibility'...you see, we initially thought we could give other people are colour changing natures..." He said, and suddenly blended in against the shop stalls in the back - he was far from invisible, but he was clearly well trained in it.

"...Until it wears off - we used a couple of needles for the job, but we never got round to testing them on someone other than ourselves, but of course, that turned out to be pointless. You might be able to avoid any nasty confrontations if you take enough with you, but of course - it doesn't make you fully invisible, and cave dwellers? They have more than just sight to hunt down their prey. If you would be willing to test one out, we could sell you some at discount price - keep in mind, by brother seems to think the idea of your body getting violently sick to this is the most likely outcome to this...want to give it a try? Because I really think your screwed going there without it, and anything else we have is not going to help you that much." He finally finished talking there and leaned against the counter, looking at me right in the eye, awaiting my answer. He was right, really, I honestly don't think I could make it far without those seeds - they did seem like my best chance, and even if I did get sick, I could wait to recover and try a few days down the line - now that my head was in gear, I did realise there was ultimately no deadline for getting home other than 'as soon as possible'.

"Sure, will I wait here while you get them?" I replied.

"Ok, wait here a moment." He said, starting to sound far less cranky, and even somewhat friendly - his usual self when working at his shop in the mornings and afternoons, since he had time to wake up properly. He returned after a brief minute was a fairly large box and opened it in front of me - it wasn't very full, and there must have only been about twenty seeds there - they looked like normal seeds you found on Earth, but the people of this world saw fit to tamper with them and make them vessels for what would probably end up becoming class A drugs in the western world.

"So do I just eat one and see what happens?" I said, picking one of them up and inspecting it closely - it did indeed just look like a large, but normal looking seed, but once again, it was hard to tell if the seed was actually big, or it was just my shortened size that was messing with my brain.

"Yes, I just need to see what happens - remember - discount price, Floyd!" He said, seeming awfully keen to test them on me - I did wonder why he didn't test them earlier, but I thought nothing off it as I quickly swallowed it whole, which wasn't actually that difficult to do oddly enough, and it felt merely strange as it went down my throat and into my stomach.

"Nothing yet..." I said, standing there, looking at my hand to see if there was any changes in appearance of my skin, of which there was none yet.

"May take a moment...wait, I see change...yeah, you're not well versed at this keeping invisible thing." He said, and I looked at my hand which seemed to have a bluish tint in it. "But if you're going in some sort of deep dark cave, as long as you can keep shades of darkish brown and grey on you, I think you'll be fine. But I should mention the obvious - you'll look like a floating set of equipment - still, it might keep them baffled for long enough so they don't attack, or at least no one will attack out of interest of food, that is, if they are dependent on their sight..." He said - it was a sore reminder how my smell gave me away to the pack of elektrikes earlier on.

"Ok then, how do you kecleons change your colour then? I mean, I'm not consciously doing anything."

"It's a sort of mental and physical thing...it's hard to explain, I'll try to explain as my parents did when they were teaching me, it might be different for someone who just ate a tiny part of our pigments - guess packing them in one of these seeds we import from the farm up north-east from here really does work miracles after all! Anyway, the first time I got it, is that I inhaled deeply - very, very deeply. Err...give it a try and hold your breath." I did as he said, breathing in as much as my lungs would take, and I shut my mouth. I shuddered for a bit before I felt a strange tingling all over my body - it reminded me of the one and only time I had my first and only joint, where it left me with mild pins and needles all over my body. This, Kecleon was expecting.

"Feel tingling sensations over your body?" He asked and I nodded with difficulty, wanting a breath. "Alright, good, now this may be tricky, but you think you can make yourself cock-eyed for a moment? I swear I'm not taking the piss here, really, and when you do so, try to imagine your whole body - if it works, you'll see that your skin has become the desirable colour." This wasn't easy, and I could barely shift my eyes at all, but I did imagine myself being dull grey, and according to Kecleon's excited nodding, I had done it.

"Ah, excellent! Now you can breathe again and keep your eyes relaxed, but be sure to keep the thought of you being that colour in about this part of your head here." He said, tapping me on the middle of the right side of my head. "Well, that's how I eventually figured it out, and it seems you caught on quickly - say, would you mind staying until it wears off so I can log how long it lasts?"

"Sorry sir, I really should be heading, sooner the better - shall we do business now?" I said, taking the money out of my bag.

"Oh, of course...I'll just get someone else to test as well - could use a few citizens to test to make sure it works for them as well. Anyway, what do you need?" He said before jumping swiftly behind the counter again.

"Ok, how about three of those seeds, two oran berries, a rope, a torch and some food and bottled water." I asked, and he got them from behind his stand, of which I paid for.

"Well, it was worth it after all - It's a fair but of money you got...say, I hope you don't mind me being nosy but...what on earth is compelling you to go to some place even the most experienced of explorers are very cautious of?"

"...There's something I have to do, trust me, you wouldn't believe me let alone understand me with this one. I doubt we'll see each other again, farewell, and thank you for serving me." I said and left without another world, without even a backward glance at Kecleon before leaving by the front door. I had absolutely no more reason to ever be in Treasure Town again as I left without taking a glance at anything, merely looking dead ahead of me, my head barely moving an inch as I walked out of town and looked into my 'borrowed' book, using the light from the most outward buildings to see it properly - I had to check again for the location. Frustratingly, where I had to go was not placed on a map, but Team Raider reported that it was on the south of the mountain range, and described the entrance as being a large hole in the ground, and that the lands at these parts of the continent were fairly uncharted, the mountain range being very inhospitable, as I experienced first hand.

I could expect to find no real form of civilization there, and the lands it blocked off to potential settlers would make even the places around where I was going seem completely alien. I knew it'd take many hours to get there, but I wasn't going to be held back by fighting my way through things, or by other explorers who weren't as agile and quick as I was. Hell, there was no reason to - all I had to do was to protect myself. Something that would no doubt be scary as previously experienced, but the goal at the end...worth any risk. I decided to cut through familiar ground, going by the moonlit Craggy Coast once more, and thankfully there wasn't much life here, certainly not as much as last time. Why, everything I saw looked liked it was in hiding for some reason, as if something subtle, yet sinister had changed here.

I wasn't complaining though - the wind was non-existent at the moment - no nasty sea salt to bother me as I ate some sort of roll as I made my way over the rocks, which again - far easier than last time. Whether it was to do with the skills I acquired or merely due to the fact that they were drier than when I came here with Chimeco and Corphish, who knew. The moon, or whatever this particular moon was called, the other one being behind clouds on the other side of the sky, made something in the rocks shimmer like a faint set of monochrome decoration lights, giving a far more mystical feel to this rugged land compared to the violent winds that battered it the last time. I received no trouble at all from anything so far - excellent as that was, I was starting to get some fatigue. I hadn't slept in the last eighteen hours, and all the running around I did earlier was taking it's toll. I was highly tempted to take an oran berry for an energy boost, but I knew just how short lived that boost would be - best saved for the cave, or whatever it was.

The mountain range must have been less than a mile off by now, and looking upon it, I could barely make out any details - only spiky shapes of black on top of the darkest blue sky, kept from being totally black by the vast collage of stars that could only been seen in such detail isolated in the country side back in the human world. I shivered slightly before planning my text move, in which again, I consulted my book, trying to use the moonlight as much as possible to best attempt to read the text. My huge nose was only now starting to feel normal after weeks of having it, but boy, did it make for difficult reading! My eyes were almost in pain as they focused on the barely-lit text as I continued to read - they apparently found it by heading between Mount Horn, the largest mountain in the range, and Mount Ventus, the smaller mountain to the south of it, and heading dead south the smaller mountains, and they described the place as being nothing but an unnatural sort of hybrid between a sinkhole and a cave that lied between three large mounds in the ground, and most bizarrely, devoid of all water, and told me how they had to use large quantities of rope to successfully navigate the entrance. My gaze was suddenly jerked away from the book by an ominous screech in the mountains which echoed across the lands, flaring a shiver from me as the sound wave went over my body. I wasn't going to dwaddle anymore, I knew where I had to be going now, and there was no time to be wasted.

Thankfully, again, the mountain range was a lot easier to pass now that I was going between them - the grass still grew here, and even the aerodactyls that lived here - it seemed like they only came out during the day, and I had walked at such a brisk pace, that the sun hadn't come remotely close to rising yet as far as I could tell, considering there was no lightening of the sky from it. The shadowed areas - both a source of comfort and unease - sure, I could keep to them to help keep me hidden from those who would want to eat me or worse, but would I overlook something that was hiding there first? As much as I cared to get back home, doing it without getting killed was obviously just as important for the most obvious reasons imaginable. Fatigue was really setting in now, my body begging for sleep, but my mind refusing to let it happen - even if my body would outright give up and refuse to move, my mind would be racing so fast, sleep wouldn't even be feasible. The rocks and plants left ominous shadows including one that oddly enough seemed to move, grabbing my head and turning it to what was causing it. Should have guessed, a shiftry, but as creepy as it was walking around, it paid me no heed.

No reason to change that then, but the continuing shifting shadows it caused caused great unsettlement, and along the the feeling of smallness the mountains brought to me, really did put me on edge, and added that automatic glance over my shoulder as the winds picked up slightly, snaking their way through the mountains, creating the oddest echoes as it brushed past the rocky formations. Seeing in the dark was oddly enough not to difficult, with a combination of snivys probably having a slightly easier time seeing in dark places and myself being out in the night for quite a few hours now. I kept in mind what the book told me, and indeed so, between the two mountains, I saw a small hill that would have blocked the way if I couldn't climb over it. I had now increased my pace to a run, striding swiftly across the soft, rather damp grass, and ran up it, ignoring the strange bestial cry some distance behind me, that would have normally made me panic, but this time, curiosity and ambition had a victory over anxiety and fear as I got to the top of the mound and saw it for myself - in the darkness, I could see that once the ground started levelling off, it fell away again, sinking deep into the earth below. The laws of nature seemed different to a small degree here than on Earth, but the feelings I got from looking down confirmed that I might as well abandon any notion of the laws of the universe once I get deep inside there if everything I thought was going to happen, was indeed going to happen.

The book - I might as well consult it one last time - there'd be no reading it down there. I skimmed past Team Raider's details that the book had quoted and turned the page to see if there was anything more on what I might find down there - there was indeed, and matter of fact - the quoted text (this book was pretty much nothing but quotes) - it came from Harvey, one of the humans I saw in a vision once in this world back in the expedition! And I had wondered why some of the pokemon here doubt the human travellers! The sun was by now, slowly coming up, and while it wasn't yet peeking over the horizon, the darkness in the east was starting to dissipate to make way for the light that was coming, and thus, it wasn't difficult to read, but what I read...really only made me feel worse - it seemed like it was the last recorded text from any human, and it read:

"Well, it's time. All my efforts on finding ways back to our own world have landed in complete failure, and in the months that had past since our strange arrival, I could see the mental health of poor Benoit slowly degrading with each passing day. Sane? Yes, but I had doubts how much longer that would last. I came to really like the man over the past couple of weeks - I don't think I've met a more sincere person ever - perhaps even over my own wife. I wonder how she's doing now? If she even thinks of abandoning me while I was in this unfortunate predicament...anyway, Acalan - we eventually had no choice but to engage in his unholy idea - seeing the source of evil itself, Giratina. There was something very strange with this man, I couldn't help but notice - he claimed that he became truly connected about two weeks ago, and even said that because of it, he knew where Giratina could be found. He was foolish to ever think such things, but the cruel reality was - he was our last hope. I really had no choice but to trust this South American native tribesman."

"He was even able to describe what we might see, and he said, and I quote - "The hole - down into the depths into the "World Abyss", one of four scattered across all dimensions - they connect us, bind us, our only tethers to existence. There is no world where The Watcher in The Great Beyond dwells - only the discarded, unwanted pieces of creation, and the unending channels that weave around all dimensions, where any laws of reality can be subject to change, or removal." This fiendish description was not something I'd ever want to put myself into...but for my wife...I'd do anything. I'll likely never make another diary entry, lets hope I don't forget to take this with me...thank you, diary." I did not care to notice how Acalan had seemingly learned more advanced English, or even the description of 'The World Abyss', as they were nothing but causers of doubts, which I could not afford to have.

I was heading down sent my instincts alight, making them express their desire to abandon all hope and flee. But I had no where else to go - the guild? I probably made myself unwelcome there by now - I had searched for too long to be put off by this - they did get back to the human world! Giratina MUST have sent them back! How else did they write about it when they got back?! Salvation was down in the abyss below, albeit in the surrealist conceivable way. Putting the book away for the final time, I started to make my descent into the throat of the world.

The walls of the cave were extremely steep, looking down as far as I could, but getting back up would not be a concern, in spite of what my fearful, irrational side was telling me - this was a one way trip, and I damn well knew that. Tying the rope to a tree near the edge of the huge hole, I threw the other end down and used it to start abseiling down into the darkness below. I was treading the path of mankind and the best explorers to have ever made their presence in this world, lowering myself down, keeping an extremely tight grip to avoid falling down - goodness knows how long it was to fall down there! My heart suddenly banged furiously against the inside of my chest when my foot slipped on a loose rock, as I listened to it fall, waiting for the sound of it hitting the ground below, which didn't take as long as I expected, since I sort of expected it to be a bottomless pit of all things - how silly me me. Turns out the rope wasn't quite long enough to take me all the way down, but squinting through the blackened depths, I could see the ground just below, so I dropped down silently, and almost fell - it was ground, but it was really steep - hardly qualified as a cave floor, it just kept on going down, and down until I could see no more. There was no noise here apart from myself, and I waved goodbye to the dawning sky before I descended into the abyss.

The way did not flatten our remotely, as I gingerly walked down, not wanting to fall and bash my head of a pointed rock or other similar things. The black surrounded me completely, and I could barely see a whole meter ahead of me - time to light the torch. I felt around in my bag for it and pulled it out with some difficulty, as well as a kecleon seed - not taking any chances here. I lit the end of the torch on fire with a strange sort of lighter that was included, which required a lot of shaking for it to light, but that caught be off guard when it seemed to light automatically! Handily, however, it light the torch, bring a warm light to these empty caverns. The rocks seemed to be untampered by rainfall, aside from on the ground, where it seemed a little smother than the stalactite formations on the top side, hanging like a set of spears, that luckily, didn't look like they were going to fall at highly inconvenient times, as menacing as those dark brown spikes appeared. The only noises that bounced of the abyss's walls were the sound of the burning flame of my torch, my footsteps, and my own breathing, my exhaled breath sounding much louder than it usually does.

There was no odd sighting for about a few minutes of careful walking, but I soon heard strange chocked cries, sounding like it was crying for mercy, rather than help, and upon looking to the right, I could see them - small, grotesque dare blue shapes with what must have been a pair of wings alongside a much larger one, all huddling around a squirming furret, who's screeches were now becoming faint, and it's struggling subsided, and they were obvious aware to my presence, and the largest one turned around and it bared it's fangs, covered with the blood of the now fully-drained furret, that glistened menacingly and it made a most disgusting screech as it walked unsteadily towards me, looking hungrily at me with it's beady eyes, which seemed to be staring right at my neck. Humans being attacked by golbats wasn't too uncommon, and while only fatal to small children, was a painful and terrifying experience if one manages to wrap its wings around you - it's mouth was big enough to swallow me whole, let alone being able to survive if it it bit me. The stench of the creature lingered of its previous victims, and it's huge, drooling tongue hung out as it eyed up my blood for a dessert - it wasn't going to happen! I again was in no mood to fight - could I have beat it down? Maybe, but holding a torch as the only light source, it'd be a stupid risk, so I dashed further down into the depths of the earth, swallowing a kecleon seed to try and make me less visible, completely forgetting in panic that the flaming torch would give me away easily.

The screeches behind me told me that I was actually managing for once to get away as I hurtled over each little rock, not caring if I tripped or not. The rocks - I swore they had eyes, piercing me with their disturbed gaze. The seeds I bought proving to be useless here, I just hurtled, ignoring the shifting eyes and their grunts of disapproval. One of them right ahead of me seemed especially pissed off, and tried to slam me to death - or at least the torch - with it's powerful arms, and while I was in too much of a panic to stop, I did manage to leap right over the damn golem. I feared for one terrifying moment that they might try to cause a deliberate cave in to have me killed as a punishment for disrupting them, but it seems like the subterranean pokemon weren't that desperate - why destroy your own home just to avenge someone who disrupted your sleep? Eventually, the path steepened once more and I could no longer keep my balance as I started falling forwards in a strange slow motion, bashing my head across the ground, which had become a lot less gravely and a lot smoother by this point and I continued to tumble down into the dark depths. I curled up the the foetal position in an attempt to protect my more vital body parts from sharp nasty knocks, each time touching the ground becoming more painful than the last. I had no idea how bruised and cut I had become, I had no idea how deep I tumbled - this 'World Abyss' looked the damn same no matter how far I fell down, and then on one particular knock, everything went black.

There was no light at all now, as darkness was now all-encompassing, and I now hadn't a clue how deep I was in now. I found myself lying on my side, with too many cuts and bruises to count, and both sharp and dull pains at every part of my body, even parts I thought I couldn't possibly feel pain in. The stabbing and punching from inside my body outright prevented me from getting up for quite a while, and all I could do is struggle to breathe in pain as I stared into the black. I knew which way I had to go - it was a start, at least, and at least I wasn't dead - that I was thankful for. I was now wondering what Giratina would look like - the whole mythology cult around him described him as a six limbed serpentine god with a pair of huge, terrible wings, and eyes that supposedly can look far beyond beyond our supposed petty three dimensions, but no matter what he actually looked like, I knew that I'd know exactly who it is when I see him.

Ten minutes must have passed before I had it in me to get up - the pain and my general tiredness was weighing me down like several anchors of all shapes and sized, making powering through it very difficult. My head felt like it was splitting and screaming in raw agony as I forced myself to continue the walk necessary to get home, which was made even trickier by the fact I had to lean down quite a lot, given that the tunnel by now had became tiny. I couldn't even see a thing, I was wondering if any light could possibly get down here at all, but all I knew is that the path led down, albeit not nearly as steep as before. I could barely even see my feet, and I honestly couldn't tell if the next step would lead me down a pit and making me fall to my death, and all I honestly had to tell myself that this wouldn't happen was blind faith. Step by step, I carried on, breathing deeply to muscle my way through each and every sort of ache, both mental and physical, and only the thoughts of my home world, that I could be there within an hour - I really wish I had Serge with me now to perhaps initiate a dimensional scream to see if it'll all work out well for me or not, but he wasn't hear, and he symbolized every damn thing that was wrong with this world - the exploration enthusiasts, and how I got caught up in it all, and their strange selfless ways, and how they suddenly became selfish at the oddest and most inconvenient of times. I was leaving behind nothing worthwhile.

But all this thinking about going home reminded me of a critical issue - yes, I could get back home, but would I get my own body back? I couldn't play in my band anymore - The Kyogre Is Dead would have to find another bassist - albeit, it'd be a high selling novelty if I could still play bass as a snivy, but the thought of myself being excluded for the most unavoidable reasons told me that I might not necessarily be returning to my old life – I guess it'll never be the same again. Still, it'd surely be better than the arse of existence that is this pathetic piece of shit land for sure though - as long as I can convince my friends and family that it's me, I'd be happy. The chasm didn't seem to be as dark as it was before for some bizarre reason, and each passing step, around the slight twisting and turning of each small bend, I could make out in gradually increasing detail, the strangest form of lights. The dull, amber glow that seemed to leak ever so slightly beneath the rocks on the ground made things a little more visible, but in a way I'd rather stay in the dark. The unlawful, unholy slits in the stone floors gave intense vibes of unease as the amber glow seemed to fluctuate beneath the surface. What was beneath this stone floor, I had no idea, but I now knew I was beginning to enter the most vile lands of unspeakable horrors any man has ever came to bear witness to.

The rocks shifted in protest beneath my feet, and it felt like I was standing on very small islands, floating on this barely describable light. The hum that the light gave off - so quiet, yet impossible to ignore, like an injured old man rendered too weak to make much of a cry for help. I dared not to try and take a peek between the rocks to see what was down there as I pressed on, the gaps becoming larger as I came ever closer to leaving the world behind me. The jigsaw of stone fragments was getting further apart, and each rock I stood on moved slightly as if I gently nudged a puck in a game of air hockey, only being stopped by the rocks ahead, but it was what I saw above me that really told me that the laws of nature and reality were starting to unravel - the ceiling of the 'cave' - the rocks there seemed to be also coming apart, floating on the ominous glow, but being the ceiling, they should have fell down. They didn't. In my frightened curiosity, I started slowly taking steps up the cavern wall, noticing that the passage had become almost completely like a hollow cylinder, and yet, for each step I took, I felt like I was on the bottom. I didn't feel like I was upside down, even though I should be, walking half way around. What sort of gravity laws changed here, I had no Idea.

The rocks got even sparser as I continued further down - or up, I couldn't even tell anymore, into the abyss, and I knew this was neither the pokemon or the human world anymore in what I stumbled into. I had to one time jump to the next one, not wanting to find out what was down, or up there if I fell between the rocks, and it slid gracefully across as if it was being pushed across the calmest waters, and it was here, I swore I could see the end, but I could not tell what I was even looking at, but in the distance, there looked like there was something dramatically different. That, however, left my mind lately, when I went to take a step forward, only to have the stone slab skid from under my feet as I fell down past the rocks, and hit something fairly soft. I wasn't injured, but the noise that I made when I fell was a squelch, combined with the most spine chilling screeching sound, reminiscent of a noise which I'd imagine an infant would make if it was tortured by a red hot poker. I sprang immediately, holding my head with both hands in shock at the most horrific sound, and upon landing again on...whatever I was walking on, the noise sounded again, but more quietly this time.

My breath had become flustered, weak, and rapid in shock, as I looked down at first with horror, but then curiosity at what I was standing on. The real floor of this abyss, goodness knows when it started, but it looked like a series of blue and purple tendrils, fairly soft in design, intersecting over one another that fluctuated ever so slightly, as if I was standing on a nigh-on incomprehensible living creature's veins and arteries inside it's body - I swore I could even feel something rushing through them from beneath my feet. Taking a deep, but shivering breath, I carried on walking, being very light on my toes to prevent another horrific screech - it seemed to happen if too much pressure was applied on the 'floor', as pressure beyond what 'it liked' seemed to cause it some agony. I somehow didn't think I was standing on Giratina, as looking on, I could see a giant opening ahead, but as anxious as I was to see it, I was not going to make another screeching noise for it. The 'floor' silently squelched slightly, sending the swiftest of shivers up my body each time I took a step, and the orange glow itself seemed to have gone behind me, as it appeared to act as a medium to help separate rock from...this. Perhaps this was the confines and boundaries of 'The Great Beyond' that I was standing on, but I'd understand the true spectacle of it as I finally reached my target location.

Standing at the edge of this blasphemous path I took, I must have been able to see into the forever - the other side, in which I could dimly see the intersecting tendrils and veins, emitting the tiniest bit of light, must have been several miles across, and looking right and left, I could see that it was the biggest tunnel of emptiness that I was entering, with no end in sight. There was simply no way this could possibly exist inside of a planet. Somehow and somewhere, I must have crossed dimensions once again, and have completely left existence itself behind me if the ominous quote in the book of undefined legends was true. The walls of this titanic-sized tunnel again seemed to undulate ever so slightly as I accidentally leaned too forward and started floating in the empty air helplessly as gravity abandoned me, and felt myself floating surprisingly quickly towards the middle of the tunnel. The abyss in which I used to enter this barely describable 'world' was soon very far behind me as I flailed my arms, legs and tails helplessly to try and get me in a stable position, and it was then I realised something awful.

Oxygen here? Not present! I desperately grabbed my own throat in panic, tugging at the skin, looking around all over the place in mindless confusion and fear, seeing corpses of things I didn't even know existed - something resembling some sort of fish-human hybrid, webbed feet and fingers wit claws on them, greyish green in colour that covered it's entire body, with a finned ridge down it's head and back that eventually led into a tail, with it's large, bulbous eyes that I swore were staring at me if I wasn't sure if it was truly dead or not. I also noticed a broken piece of landmass to my right as my whole body spasmed in panic - it was covered in the tiniest bunch of red fungi all over one side, with the soil breaking away from which it grew from and yet, the soil that broke away seemed suspended, as if it was attacked by invisible string to the main, tiny landmass. As my vision became blurry as I started to asphyxiate, I came to truly regret coming here. What possible good could have come from paying the most evil entity in this existence, and any other existences to ask him if I could return to my own world. Clearly, I had went full retard, and death was the price to pay. I bumped into the fish-man as I got taken into the strange gravitational cycle that seemed to rotate about a mile from the centre of this tunnel, when suddenly, oxygen returned to my lungs once more. I floated for about ten seconds in shock, wondering how this could have happened. I somehow doubted that I was dead, and felt the space around me - my arm felt air as I waved it around fast, yet in a creepy sense my had didn't? Creepy, I said? It was NOTHING, to compared what was happening in about five seconds from now...

Kicking off the disgusting fish-man and landing on a more earth-like piece of land, which had for some reason extremely soggy soul, I clung onto it, and looking over the top, I saw the most horrifying, spine chilling and something so abominable that it was almost nauseating coming towards me fast. It was like a black, serpentine shadow, which seemed to leave shadowy trails and wisps behind it as it moved towards me in ways that I could not understand - it wasn't flight, nor was it gliding. There seemed to be the oddest set of six tendrils, or tentacles, or whatever they were, I could not tell - they had the same shadowy attributes to the rest of it unnatural body, and yet, the ends of them seemed to shine red, with a stronger light emitting from them at the absolute tips that were more white in colour. The same colour scheme seemed to match it's all seeing eyes - or what I assumed were eyes - just below it's blasphemous crown of spite malice, as they fixated on my like two torches, seeking for an on-the-run suspect. It knew I was there, no mistake, and as it got closer, I could make out the seeming detail that it's body looked like it was evaporating in a way, with some sort of red smoke coming from it's eyes, and from the eyes and whatever in the world those...things that were was coming out of it's back gave it a morbid red outline and tinge to the blackness that made up it's body, and although that I could not tell if I was seeing it as it truly was or it was all my delirious mind could make out after the stresses and fatigue of late, who knew, but I knew one thing, and I had no doubts about this now:

I was now staring into the eyes of a god.


	14. The Return

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 14: The Return

Giratina, or 'The Watcher in the Great Beyond', as the creepy tribesman called him must have only been ten meters away now, and I can say without a doubt, more so than dealing with that groudon illusion, fleeing for my life away from the vicious pack in the Amp Plains, more so than thinking I was about to die from suffocation a mere minute ago did I experience this level of terror - dying flat on the spot felt like a comfort compared to the things I imagined this abomination could do to me. Putting me in a permanent state of mental hell, joyously and slowly pulling my body apart over the course of hours, I could not tell what he was capable of doing to me, and I merely stared back with a pale expression with a shivering jaw, with no laughable chance of me keeping a straight upper lip. It was even a wonder why my heart didn't just stop and have me die out of preventing me from suffering a fate worse than death. The rest of my body was frozen, my breathing becoming absolutely minimal as I stared right at Giratina, awaiting his next action. He seemed to remain quite still, surveying me subtly for about half a minute before I heard the most disembodied and nerve-freezing voice inside my very head.

"Mortal...I sensed a 'visitor' in The Great Beyond." The voice said, sounding completely hollow, as if all of it's humane substance got completely removed as it travelled through ghostly winds. "Why are you here? Speak, I will understand your communication methods." It commanded, as I panicked, being in too much mental stress to initially figure out that it was Giratina himself speaking to me, but I did know that it was probably for the best to just go along with whoever it was that was inside my head.

"...If it's you, Giratina...I..." I stalled for a few seconds, shivering, and starting to break into mild hysteria at the massive being of cosmological power right in front of me, and while only explicitly stated in Arceus related scriptures, Giratina was pretty much made of pure malicious spite, which gave signals that this was the start of him toying with me until a hellish demise.

"I came...to...I..." I started breaking down even further as tears felt like they were squirting from my eyes in absolute terror, and my body felt completely drained of energy from the fear-driven shivering and the occasional spasm, knowing that I was completely and totally at his mercy. "I wanted...I...to..." Upon my struggled stutters and my seeming inability to form sentences, Giratina, again, spoke from inside my head.

"You're clearly frightened - perhaps it is because you have heard of my existence and some of my actions I have committed right since the beginning of time itself, but something that I do not know - how has that knowledge reached the first world in such detail that your body almost ceased to function out of such a high level of hysteria? It is something I should be aware of, and I will say one thing before I let you speak - notice how your lungs are still respiring? There is no air here, aside from the bubble of air I put around you as I detected your presence - if I had wanted you dead as the distortions of truth and outright lies placed on me in the second world likely have you believe, I would not have saved your life. Keep that in mind for when you next speak - now, continue, mortal."

Giratina's voice said, feeling a little more of it's influence of where Giratina was physically - it still sounded like it was inside my brain, and yet, he seemed to now activate this telepathy in a way that functioned closer to my detection of regular physical speech - it still had nothing to do with my ears, but he seemed to be planting the idea that I was 'hearing' him in front of me, rather than being totally inside my head. It was still extremely hard for me to believe that Giratina didn't at one point aim to cause total chaos across the world and to rip apart existence itself as told in scriptures on multiple faiths, even in the Palkian doctrine, but he did have a point about how he did save my life, and considering he must have been able to send the previous humans back home, it added up logically.

"I...came here to be sent home...to the human world. You're my last hope and chance of that happening." I said, trying to be efficient when talking to the behemoth in front of me, as I tried to force myself to calm down, in which I did with surprising efficiency, though I was still shuddering so hard that it just about physically hurt me.

"And yet you came from the first world, the pokemon world...very well then, I shall - keeping denizens in their own world was something I stood with great fervour, as it was one of my duties given to me by Arceus himself. But first, given your reactions upon seeing me...I think a moment of education is in order, much like I gave the three humans who found me here over a hundred years ago. This shall not be a distraction from my duties, however, as I'm using 99.872% of my mental capacity to keep the walls of the dimensions stable at this very moment. Now, I shall tell you the truth as I perform a slow mental scan for me to send you through the dimensional weaving of the world after your education on the truth of the origin of existence is understood. Come." He said, but it turned out I never had to do anything, as I seemed to float right behind him as he made his way back the way he came to find me using some kind of telekinesis.

"The second world, the world of the humans...did you happen to come across any inactive bodies of scaled aquatic organisms when you arrived here?" He asked me, his voice still sounding highly unearthly.

"Yes, I did - they seem quite human shaped." I responded, and he replied so quickly it caught me off guard.

"Those were the last discarded design for humans Arceus made. I was sure for many months that those would end up becoming his master creation, that is, until he discarded thousands of prototype humans in here, and changed his mind to develop the humans to live on land rather than under the sea with slight land-travel capabilities - for you see, this 'Great Beyond' or 'Distortion World' or 'Torn World' or 'Reverse world' or 'The Void' or 'The Abyss', going by the name of a lot of the main scriptures give this place is also a disposal site for Arceus's unwanted creations. He went through a lot of trial and error to make both worlds the way that they are." He told me as I looked at one of the aquatic humans as I floated by it - to think that I very nearly could have looked like that for all my life - I was sure as fuck glad Arceus changed his mind!

"The origin of existence started long before that though - for there was once a time where existence was the all in one of Arceus - only he existed - he was existence itself. A being of borderline absolute power, and yet the reality was this - he is still fallible, and I would compare his mental attitudes of that to a human. Can you figure out why you, this world, and I exist? Why Arceus created everything that you've ever detected with your senses?" I shook my head - he wasn't looking at me, but he could tell that I couldn't put two and two together this time.

"Well, as perplexing as it might sound to you, he created the universe and the different dimensional plains out of, well, boredom. What happened before Arceus created Dialga, Palkia and myself, not even I can comprehend, but throughout boredom, or as Arceus put it, 'artistic expression', he started creating each and every part of existence, starting with me and the other two lesser gods in the space of a few years, all of this happening nineteen million, four hundred and twenty thousand, seven hundred and ninety eight years ago - all of this for his own personal entertainment. I guess you should hope that the mortals are not boring him, since a bored Arceus could be the most dangerous thing to happen to all planes of existence. Aside from installing his own faith group that over half the humans in the second world follow three thousand years ago, he has not once had any form of intervention, which you should be thankful for. I believe that it will stay that way, as his fascination with his most prized creation continues to amuse him. It might seem arrogant for those who follow Arceus's word to assume that they are the height of creation, but Arceus would agree with that himself."

My mind was simply not wrapping around this at all, even though I could have guessed half of it to be true without this encounter - I didn't want to trust Giratina, not of anything alive and yet, what he said so far was actually adding up. How my brain was still in check only lead to another possible revelation - could Giratina be putting on the the most subtle form of mind control on me? The odd thing is, I was wondering about the humans and pokemon as well and how they came to meet, and in the most creepy fashion, Giratina then started speaking about just that.

"I can tell you're wondering how humans and pokemon came to meet - it started with the greatest failure in being the one who keeps the walls of the dimensions in tact. Half a million years ago, my carelessness allowed huge rips to form between the first and second - the pokemon and human world to you - which allowed many pokemon to seep through whether by accident or on purpose, and migrated to the human world. I thought that this would be a disaster, leading to mass extinctions - and I was right . The animals, which Arceus made for use by the humans - most of them were driven to extinction by the pokemon, for they were simply more adept at surviving in the wild and pushing out their competition, and even though I sent word down to humans to separate themselves as much from the pokemon as much as possible, which ended up becoming a minor religion among human kind. Their integration made it impossible for me to send them back safely without severe damage to the dimensional linings, which could have, at worst case scenario, caused both the worlds to fall into one another and eventually crumble into instability, and yet, in spite of all this, humans and pokemon alike seemed to benefit one another, and could have even made the second world a better place. I had a prophet to tell all the followers I accumulated - by accident, of course - to tell them that there was no need to pursue their goals of segregation, but alas, he convinced almost no one."

"Unlike Arceus and the other lesser gods, I did not actually intend to start my own faith group or religion. Arceus told me that he only really started his own religion to get people to know that he created the existence in which they live in and for himself to get the due credit for it, and while I can't be sure, knowing Arceus, he probably only let Dialga and Palkia start their own faiths to make conflict, which he has taken quite a liking to - claims that it breaks up any mundane happenings in the second world. The many forms of afterlife that he promised were also completely fictional - again, to try and accumulate more praise and worship to bolster his own ego, and to create even conflict to entertain him. It's a wonder really, Arceus's mind is really not that different from the minds of some humans, for better or worse, which seems to justify the claim that Arceus made humans in his image, not to mention that he himself spread his religion under the guise of a human."

"His real appearance also may not what you expect it to be, for the images he telepathically handed down to people is just his favoured form - the one with a thousand arms that shaped the universe is indeed, also Arceus as said in his book, is the first form I ever witnessed him to be, and not even I dare attempt to comprehend what lay before that." For reasons I couldn't understand, I felt compelled to just go with what he was saying, and being equipped with additional knowledge was also good, and it almost seemed that Giratina thought that equipping me with knowledge like this would benefit me - this was oddly enough, also a Dialgan philosophy. Giratina seemed to be rambling on a bit somewhat, changing subjects with an almost disorientating frequency - I guess he wasn't too well versed in human conversation, and as many questions as I had - particularly whether I could be sent home or not - I did not dare interrupt him.

"I was curious to find out Palkia's and Dialga's opinions on what would be good for humankind with the faith groups they installed in the second world, and it all fell down to Palkia thinking that happiness and well being is the ultimate for human life, while Dialga believed that it was truth and justice to put it in it's most basic terms. I think about it so rarely, that it is not of importance, but seeing Arceus allowing - no, asking them to set up their own religions based on over nineteen million years of experience is quite possible the only thing I know about the other lesser gods - we do not speak, we do not communicate. Arceus has forbidden us to never contact each other, and it's...wait." Giratina suddenly stopped for a split second before suddenly going incomprehensibly fast through the extra-planer tunnels of The Great Beyond for a fleeting moment, with me in tow, before suddenly stopping and he seemed to gaze at one of the 'walls', which looked slightly darker than the rest of the linings of this alien place. He seemed to open his mouth and breathed some sort of dark gas onto the corrupted looking wall, and it soon returned to the sickly purplish colour scheme like the rest of the linings.

"That was required to prevent another possible tear - it is my unrelenting purpose to do this until the end of time. My mental scan of you is nearing it's completion, but there's one other thing I am going to educate you on before I can decide what to do with you. As a pokemon who's seemingly more intelligent than most, much like humans are - I trust you don't know why?" Giratina asked me, as I continued to observe him with curiosity in his black void of a form - perhaps this was just my mind's interpretation of Giratina, and I simply couldn't comprehend what he really looked like - it was certainly a possibility.

"...Actually, I do know. Uxie told me - Uxie, along with Mespirit and Azelf were pokemon made by Arceus to fully bring about what he called 'the human spirit' or the mental capacity to help make humans intelligent - Uxie theorized that their influence on mankind leaked to the pokemon to an extent, and alongside the fact that three explorers who found their way here encouraged these human-like behaviours among pokemon, which made them civilized. I also think there are similar reasons why the pokemon in the human world are far more intelligent than animals." I said, taking a deep breath between each pause, and while we weren't making eye contact, we did seem to see eye-to-eye in the metaphorical sense. I assumed the reason why pokemon didn't display human intelligence outright on the human would could have been due to mankind's collective subconscious not wanting any competitors, and not wanting to encourage them to start their own little civilization that could bump their place as top-dogs on Earth. Can't say I blame them if that were the case.

"You know more than I had anticipated." Giratina stated, slowly coming to a stop in this geometrically unsound place. "The three humans were sucked through to the first world through, once again, my fallibility as the custodian of The Great Beyond - and yet, it all seemed to amount to the further amusement of The Eternal Patriarch. I can occasionally get glimpses into what he thinks as I approach the only end in one of these passages, which I could assume is near where he watches over us, but as to where it actually is - again, beyond even my conceptions of the dimensional laws, much like how it is impossible for a human to understand the true nature of any kind of physical location of each world to another." Giratina paused for a moment and suddenly turned right around and stared right at me, being a mere meter away - being this close to him filled me with an unnatural sense of emptiness, leading me to wonder if Giratina was purely a gaseous entity, and that such close proximity could even make it contagious, and strange, wild thoughts about antimatter sprung to mind. I felt as though I had to catch my breath again before he continued.

"The scan of you is complete, and has yielded information I have not seen in any other single organism. When you arrived in this world, you seemed to go through some sort of corruption, however, I can undo some of it, involving turning you back to your physical form not long before you passed into the first world. The result I found for the matching organism in the second world is in fact a human being, as you said." A mental tingling in my head seemed to flicker and then, to my right, I could see an image of my human self, standing tall, proud, and with a sense of nobility - the narcissist within me liked what he saw - it was the real me, that I would become once more!

"That's me!" I suddenly yelped in happiness, as the tingling joy in the nerve fibres were starting to dance in every part of my body. "I don't know how I got here, or how I became a pokemon, or...can I really go back to being me again?" I said, almost in disbelief that my quest had finally reached it's end and that I would reap the sweet rewards. My excited tone suddenly calmed down, just to make sure the reality of my grail would not be shattered - it all depended on what Giratina would say next - and it came to be...

"...Yes, you can. The corruption you obtained is likely due to the fact you became a pokemon somehow, and for this reason - I trust you are a follower of the word and way of Palkia?" I gave him an exasperated look by mere accident, but the thought of being suspected of being a delusional Palkian...or maybe they weren't that delusional after all.

"No, I was a proud Dialgan! So, surely, even if Palkianism is actually pure and complete fact - I would never be chosen to live a second life!" I said, raising my voice automatically - I wasn't even aware of it, but thankfully, Giratina didn't seem to notice or care.

"But you said that you didn't remember how your predicament came to be - if you developed partial amnesia, would it not be possible that you converted?" Giratina asked me - a question that seemed to make mental receptors flare in confusion and anger - no, this would never happen to me - never in a fucking thousand billion years! Betray Dialga?! The nauseating thought wasn't going to get to me!

"...And besides..." I said, calming myself, taking a couple of deep breaths, hoping my air bubble wasn't going to run out. "...Doesn't Palkia - if this whole soul stuff is true..." I said, pausing for a second - the idea of each and every member of mankind having a pokemon soul - it was no longer as ridiculous a notion as it used to be, and I was becoming dangerously close to accepting it as something I believed in. "...Doesn't he revert them to newborns?" I continued, shivering slightly. Part of me wanted to confirm this with Palkia if I ever got the chance, and yet, I was now far more afraid of Palkia than I ever was of Giratina.

"Did it say those exact words in his Tome of Enlightenment? Would you not consider other possibilities? Can you not be sure that you didn't die in the second world and have yourself reborn in this one at the age in which you died?" I couldn't take it any more - the emotions and thoughts seemed like they were pounding at my body's inner linings, wanting to burst out in a violent explosion, and I was no longer sure if I could contain them well or not anymore.

"...Please...just send me home. I'm begging of you." I spoke softly to him, trying to sooth myself, in which Giratina seemed to understand.

"Very well. I hope the knowledge and truth I have given to you will shape your views on existence for the better - Dialgans do place an extremely high value on truth, after all." He said to me, and it was the last I heard from him, as he wasted no time in sending me home. Before I could stutter and shudder with excitement and euphoria, I felt myself briefly fly through The Great Beyond at speeds I could only take a guess to be at Mach ten. It seemed like I was flying past existence itself when my vision blurred out, almost passing out, being very surprised I was surviving the sheer velocity what was happening, and after fleeting seconds of incomprehensibility, and strange paresthesia all over my body before eventually passing out.

I firmly felt myself land on what must have been grass after some time - mere seconds or hours, who could tell - and all the suppressed nostalgia came through. Slowly standing up on my now far longer legs using my far longer arms to help get me to my feet, I wobbled ever so slightly, having gotten used to a Snivy body after all this time. An ecstatic look at my hands almost made me fall over in delight - I even recognized the patterns of the veins that went over and under the bones of my hand, and right then I even kissed them out of delight, not caring that there were quite a few cuts on them, or caring how silly I looked.

It was rather bright and sunny, with clouds being seemingly absent - unusual for Scotland, and thus cherished when possible - how fitting of the weather to be like this in quite possibly the biggest burst of sheer unrestrained joy I have ever experienced! I just had to look at myself in a mirror or other reflection, and it wasn't like my legs were giving me any choice, as I ran around from behind a tree that I must have landed behind - the human people! Look at them all! I was like them once more! I was truly home as I realised that I had wound up in Prince's Street Garden! I can't remember how my screams of joy I let out as I ran across the wet grass, indicating that it must have been raining earlier, completely ignoring the occasional funny look I got. Upon reaching the children's playground on the west side of the gardens, where I got yelled at for accidentally knocking over someone's oddish by accident as I ran by, I experienced the polar opposite reaction and feeling as to when I looked at myself in the rock pools where I first woke up in the pokemon world when I approached a puddle and got on my hands and knees, staring into it.

Instead of a huge pointy nose with huge, cynical looking eyes and and seeing green on the top of my head with a surprisingly dangerous leaf on top of it, I saw think brown, untreated hair that reached slightly beyond my shoulders and all covered in dirt. It was quite a bit longer than I remembered, which was unison with my beard, which was longer and messier than usual, and seemed like it hadn't been trimmed or organized in months as it's bushiness tickled my throat - guess I didn't decide to trim it much before I wound up in that long-gone asshole world. As much as I liked a good beard, this was getting a big trim when I'd get home, and the hair as well for that matter. The hazel eyes and largish nose remained in tact, and my lips seemed a little more chapped than usual, but what was most striking was how cut and broken my face looked! I must have been trying to batter some wild pokemon, or even an assailant with a knife before this! My right cheek looked almost misshapen with a couple of fairly large scars to boot, and I continued to wonder what on earth could have happened, or what attacked me, or whether I should take a visit to a doctor or not. Minor ones were sparsely coating my nose and left cheek, with what must have been a nasty gash over my forehead, and three very nasty looking gashes parallel with each other running down the left side of my face.

There wasn't any bleeding, but the scabs and marks told me something - I must have got into a very touch situation before ending up in the pokemon world - I doubted it was a freak distortions of the dimensions as Giratina often said was the cause of 'visiting' different worlds. As for what caused it, it was anyone's guess - but they were most certainly foul cunts - perhaps it was Giratina's underground cult who kidnapped me and did this as a form of ritual sacrifice to Giratina, but no matter how it happened, it didn't matter - even though I only just realised the aching pain on my face and on other parts of my body, it didn't stop me from knowing that I was Floyd - not some snivy - once again. I must have looked extremely up myself as I gazed into my own reflection for what must have been several minutes, and I had to stop myself from giving that a kiss too out of embarrassment - but I sure wanted to out of sheer delight out of my reclaimed human form!

"Are you OK sir? You're not ill, are you?" A woman said from behind me, in a very polite and formal way of speaking, upon which I got up and turned around. She looked around middle aged, and fairly well of as well.

"I've never been better! I honestly wasn't in a drunken fight yesterday!" I said quite loudly and shook her hand without her permission. "Anyway, I have people to see, ta ta!" I said and ran off, leaving her with a confused expression. Getting home - this would be a little tricky when I shoved both my hands into my pockets and found nothing to pay for a bus fare, and it'd take at least an hour to walk there, not that I really had much of a problem. Even more of a problem, is that there was no key either - guess I'd just have to go to my dad's place - I'm sure he'd be overjoyed to see me! Prince's street was probably the busiest and most central street in all of Scotland, as to be expected of the capital of Scotland, even if it wasn't actually the biggest city - packed with cars, buses and people as it always was, complete with shops, call charging high street prices.

The old and the new clashed here at all directions - glittering skyscrapers here, and an ancient castle over there - the city just oozed with good proper standards, but never compromised it's friendly atmosphere. I always felt as though I could walk around here safe at night unlike Glasgow where my grandparents on both sides of my family originated from. Even above all the banter, and the noise of the vehicles starting and stopping, I could still hear my footsteps sounding rhythmically like a slightly broken metronome as I returned into a joyful run once more, carelessly bumping into a few people as I passed - I had got used to my human body again so fast, it was almost like I was never a snivy at all. Hell, it could have all been part on a mixed drug mixing experience that was all but forgotten, but those accumulated memories lasted well over a month. Having almost got hit by cars twice along the way due to my clumsy haste, I eventually made my way to my dad's house, taking almost an hour to get there at a joyful run. Though the joyful run, while being complete mental euphoria, was physically very painful with stabbing pains in both my legs and my left arm almost flopping a bit as it felt numb. As a result, I slowed down a bit, not wanting to risk additional injury.

"Alright then!" I said, knocked and entered without waiting for my father to respond. The reunion was upon me! I breathed so fast, that the first thing I heard was:

"Floyd, is that you? You sound exhausted, did you run here or something? I recognize even the sound of your breathing, haha!" He seemed to be fairly casual to my sudden re-appearance after I essentially went missing without a trace. "Longer hair? It was long enough before, haha! Although you don't look quite as skinny anymore, good job! You finally decided to start eating a bit more...wait, you look quite a bit different from last time..." This caused one eyebrow of mine to frown, and one to raise - he DID think I disappeared right? I'd have surely attended the church services weekly, so something must be up if he didn't ask why I missed at least five in a row.

"Dad...I'm back! It's a long time, and I'm glad I'm home, right here again!" I said, still with a wide open smile, and yet, something reeked of unfamiliarity - I remembered and loved my dad, and I thought - no - knew that he'd make a bigger fuss about this. However, he had other questions on his mind.

"...What happened to you last night?! Look at yerself! Cuts and full blown gashes on your face! Did you get violently mugged by neds or other lowlifes with knives after the church service a couple of days ago? Looks like your clothes took a beating as well, you're t-shirts torn! And your cheek bone...maybe you should make an appointment with your GP." Obviously, I needed repetition on supposed time I visited church - they contradicted EVERYTHING I knew of the past events.

"...I havn't been to church in at least five weeks. I wasn't at the last church service." My dad was looking just as baffled as I was, yet I was beginning to get disturbed - it was like I never left the human world at all. Fidgeting rapidly, I started sweating slightly as my mind raced like rolling thunder, and in each and every direction.

"And you didn't get amnesia of some kind with the accident or vicious mugging? Seems like you bashed your head on concrete, but I'm no doctor. Look, maybe I should phone one in - you were definitely, and I mean definitely at church last Monday midnight. I'll make us some coffee if you're planning to stay for a bit. Oh, and you also left your phone here, might I add." He said, sounding slightly irritated as he handed it to me - I almost always left it here by accident. Unlike myself, my dad looked exactly as I remembered him. He had a lot more beef on him than I did, though he was quite a far way from being outright fat, and dressed in his fairly smart and conservative manner - jeans that were never too tight or too baggy, and smart black boots and plain, fully buttoned shirt. Unlike me, she shaved, but was never exactly clean about it - good for him, I ought to say that facial hair gives men character! At least in my views anyway, I've heard a lot of people disagree with that. His short, tidy, yet somewhat uneven greying hair also contributed to his formal, no nonsense, yet outgoing ways, as did his redder-than-usual skin complexion. I looked barely anything like him personally, more following my mother's appearance, which was ironic since we seemed to agree on just about every issue known to man.

"I'll be going in about five minutes I think." I replied after a short delay - this was just discomforting on quite a few levels - unlike in the pokemon world, where was was wrong was obvious, this was less so, and I couldn't think of an explanation for it. It was even more inexplicable than how that Groudon statue worked, and it left this presence so uncomfortable that I felt urges to high tail it out of here.

"Ah, I see - by the way, I am deeply worried for you regarding those nasty looking gashes, really! I just remembered all the times where I worried for your safety, and pestered you with too many questions and the sort, but considering you can't remember whether you attended church or not last time, I'm guessing you can't remember how you got those injuries?" I shook my head at this, and Kirk carried on. "Think you got drunk straight afterwards? Stupid, stupid thing to do, but I really hope that's the case! You might even have got brain damage - sorry, that was me jumping to harsh conclusions, I really doubt it's the case, I don't know why I said that..." I stared at the friendly man with his short, tidy greying hair, and his slightly small size with a smaller nose to match - I was often told my looks came from my mother, and they were probably right in that regard.

"Oh, dad, I couldn't have a few pounds? I don't have any for bus fares...I've become...very disorganized lately..." I just couldn't do it - I couldn't tell him what happened to me. I felt horrible keeping this from my dad, considering that we like to share information freely among ourselves as a sign of trust, but much like the pokemon back in their world, I really didn't want to say I had visited other worlds - the thought of my dad thinking I was mad would tear me badly. He didn't need to know about this - yes, I can discover here why it seems like I had never gone, and besides, my main mission had been achieved! I was back home! Perhaps settling back in would take a few days, which is not a problem whatsoever in the overall story of my life!

"Oh, Floyd, you're better than this!" He said, but he seemed to take my perceived clumsiness in forgetting to bring enough money as naive and almost cute, rather than stupid. "Ah, you were never that good at being prepared, but damn, you came a long way since you were a child! Here's five pound coins, and it doesn't even look like your in pain right now! I guess they look worse than they are then! See you soon!" He said, gesturing to my wounds before seeing me out the door.

"Oh, and Floyd, don't worry about your dreams, or my own." He called out to me as I was about to leave. "They're just dreams, nothing more, and the worst that they can do is make sleep a little less comfortable. Hey, it's tricky for me too Floyd."

The question of how my dad claimed to see me at church within the last few days, I had no idea. I couldn't stand staying there – something was definitely wrong here, and I was beginning to wonder whether it was even my dad or not, considering his ramblings about dreams. The sky was now starting to host a few clouds, by this stage, as the light breeze from earlier was starting to blow a little more, as two nut-jobs outside my dads house were bickering over who knows what, stirring up quite a bit of noise. However, perhaps Omar could tell me something about the last time he's seen me - I was thankful my phone was at my dads!

"Hey Omar, it's me, Floyd." I said as I initiated a call with him.

"Floyd? Thought you'd have been here by now man. You usually arrive by five for gaming night, then it's off to the pubs - it's my birthday after all, man, there's gonna be like twenty of us doing a pub tour of Edinburgh, haha! Glad you decided to come along, even though you're not much of a drinker yourself, sorry if I already thanked you for that, huh huh!" I did remember about gaming night, sure, but I had no idea what day it was - odd coincidence for it to be Omar's birthday! But I also had something to celebrate - if only I could find my debit card...

"...I'm heading round there now." I said with unnatural pitching in my voice in confusion.

"Huh huh, looks like you're the ditzy one for once! Wait, someone's buzzed my flat, I'll see you when you get round, bye man!" Omar said and hung up. If I could get hold of my own money, I'd happily drink myself stupid tonight, but first thing's first - Omar's place.

Upon getting on the bus, I began to notice the aches and pains from my injuries more and more now, but it never got to the stage where it was really holding me back from anything physical, and was not dampening my lofty spirits! Albeit, I was still highly confused as to how my dad treated me as if I never left, as with Omar, but again - secondary objectives to getting settled back into the beautiful life. Everything so far upon my return seemed to smell slightly of uncanny valley if it were for entire worlds, instead of likeness to humans, but I knew I was due to find out more when I was going to meet Omar, and I was absolutely on the money on this one.

I pressed the '11' button to let Omar know I was here, and he let me in about ten seconds later, not bothering to check who it was, but then again, he never did. This encounter with Omar, unlike my father who at least acted somewhat like his usual self, showed Omar acting in a way that I could never see coming. As I knocked sharply on the door and waited, I could hear quick footsteps running to the door, and then there was an ominous pause - he never took this long to look through the bloody spyhole for me - a one second glance was all it took, yet, he stood there for almost a minute. He opened the door ever so slowly and peeked round the edge, treating me as if I was his ex-girlfriend, afraid of her taking out a wooden club and whacking him with it.

"...Uh...Floyd...eh...how are you here when...you are Floyd...right...?" He said, stuttering and looking utterly perplexed, and rather frightened to boot! His hands shook at the door, as he constantly looked at me, then back into his flat, then back at me again. His stubble and tufty brown hair remained, but the smile that came from not only his mouth, but also his cheeks and eyes that was synonymous with Omar was replaced with a wide eyed, wide mouthed expression of shock and disbelief - it seemed at times like his whole face moved closer together than anyone else's I knew.

"Hello, Omar, I have come for game night, I am sorry that I am late, shall I come in?" I said in a very formal tone, making sure to get all the information clearly across to him. "Please, do ignore these scabbed-over gashes, they are only mildly painful, please don't let it ruin your birthday man! Hell, I'll even give you a hug if you really want - it is your birthday after all!" I said, trying to act friendly, but Omar looked utterly spooked before slinking back inside his flat, saying 'stay there', leaving the door open very slightly by mistake. I briefly inspected my injuries again, and it also seemed like my chest had suffered from fairly bad burns across mildly blackened skin, but why this wasn't extremely painful, I had no idea. Maybe my pain tolerance had become almost superhuman, or the constant fighting as a pokemon made me shrug these off. All my clothes were very damaged and torn, though thankfully, they weren't falling off.

Omar was taking a while, and with impatience growing within me, I decided to do something about it. I pressed my ear carefully against the small gap between door and frame and listened hard to what Omar was saying, and what I heard was by far the most horrifying, nauseating, and out right disgusting discovery I had ever come across that rivalled even the discovery that I had become a snivy.

"...Yeah, he looks just like you! I even called him by your name, man!" He said, sounding absolutely panic stricken. "Covered in wounds and everything! Didn't seem to care about them though!" The voice that responded really helped me to understand why my dad said I was at all those church services, and I almost coughed up my stomach acids in response.

"Omar, look - I'm right here, it's obviously not me out there, calm down. I'm Floyd, surely! And you even said he looked a bit different in a few ways - less spots, longer hair, bigger beard both of which are even untidier than mine, not quite so scrawny, and looked a bit older! You're surely not mistaking him for me! Just ignore him, I really don't see why someone would want to pull some kind of doppelgänger prank on me, but I assure you...just ignore him, and you'll be fine...but on second thoughts, I wouldn't mind seeing how this fake me looks - colour me impressed if you got scared by it!" Absolute horror. Replacement. Emptiness, and no purpose. All the gifts I took and shared, all replaced by another me apparently, shunting the real me outside my well earned roles in life. Maybe, though, just maybe, he would look different enough for me to stand up and fight for my place in this world.

I could hear 'Floyd' get up from inside, and looking through the keyhole, I saw my worst nightmare in physical form - complete and total replacement. He looked even more like the me I remembered than I currently did! This transcended all forms of replacement - potential replacement in a band, or a job, or as a close friend? Nothing compared to what I was thinking right now - this revolting, false me I was looking at had completely replaced my entire life! I practically didn't exist anymore! No, this didn't rival the experience of when I became a pokemon! This surpassed it in sheer terror so much, that I didn't even realise that I now had a nasty mouthful of vomit leaking over my lips. I was too aghast to beat the living shit out of that false life thief as he jogged quickly towards the door, and instinct started to fling my down whole steps of stairs at once.

"...Sounds like he's running away! Hey, come back here, I'm wanting to see your copying efforts, I bet you'd impress me! And don't puke outside Omar's door again, will you?" I heard that carbon copy say as I heard him try to follow me down the flights of stairs, but since I had more reason to move, I managed to escape his sight. This revelation was reducing me to a miserable coward - I could have found out everything by confronting him and asking, but I just couldn't bare to even look at him - the mere thought of him made me shiver as I continued to run away from the block of flats, and eventually out of the city. The sheer bliss that occurred three hours ago had now become pure, concentrated misery, as I continued running, vomiting in small doses occasionally, sweating, and even crying slightly - I now had no one! Everyone I knew would now know the false me - that festering, cunt-ra...actually, mere words couldn't even describe it anymore. He had stole everything good in my life, so much so that I missed the prospect of being back in the pokemon world there - I at least had an identity and niche there!

I fell over due to exhaustion on a grassy field outside of the city, and was a damn dirty one as well, feeling it inside my shoes as I was left to contemplate about my voided existence. No more playing the band, no more church going, no more relaxing, no more games, no more productive and stable work - even thoughts of outright murdering my doppelgänger flashed over my mind, but I knew it'd be extremely immoral, not to mention it'd completely bastardise all of my efforts to stick to Dialga's law, and I'd never have it in me to do such a thing. And all I could tell to myself was that I was strong to not give into murderous urges.

"I'M FLOYD! FLOYD FUCKING MUNRO! ME! THE ONLY ONE! Why..." I screamed in the air, almost tearing my vocal chords out of sheer force, as I completely broke down and sobbed like a small child, my lips trembling as I lay down in a pathetic heap on the grass. I knew I couldn't prove I was the real Floyd in this state, considering my mental and physical state, I couldn't argue against the fake Floyd that I was the real one. It felt like I had taken two giant leaps back in life rather than one back and forward again - hell, I'd be grateful to return to the pokemon world right now. The only thing I was clinging onto now that this here could just be a dream - come to think of it, seeing a borderline god with my own eyes did seem rather far-fetched, and wasn't as hard to access as I thought. I did absolutely nothing from this point, barely even moving as the sun started to vanish over the tall proud buildings that lined Edinburgh, with the castle standing right in the centre atop the extinct volcano, a symbol of mankind's triumph of united workforce and a grand historical artifact. I had grown as attached to the city as much as I had been to my friends and family, and yet, I could not return to it. Not with that fiend there.

As the sun continued to sink, it darkened the buildings to mere silhouettes, and the regret of me finding Giratina started to sink in, and it was nothing that he done that did this – I brought this terrible decision upon myself, I couldn't blame Giratina for it. I started to miss Serge already, and even the guild for that matter, as I slowly started to accept that I couldn't return to my friends here. I slowly started growing very sleepy as I continued lying on the grass, feeling a couple of insects crawl over me as my eyes started drooping. Something a bit odd was starting to happen though - before I closed my eyes completely and fell asleep, it had already started to feel all like a dream - the strange exhaustion that always seems to happen as a dream reaches it's finale as you struggle to even speak, as vision blurs in strange wave-like motions, before falling asleep for real.

Perhaps it was all a dream or an illusion, for I awoke in a familiar place - the gentle, heaving, humming drone, the bizarre colour scheme - strange, unearthly objects too. Oh, and Giratina as well. Unlike when I first saw him, I experienced a lot of relief instead of fear - the truth was horrible, but perhaps I was getting my wish to return to the pokemon world - if so, I hope I could reclaim my niche there.

"I should not have done that." He stated almost immediately, still using that strange telepathy technique which seemed to echo of the walls of my skull. I turned to look at the beast, hovering fairly close to me once again, making absolutely no noise in the physical world. After picking my words wisely I once again spoke in a timid and submissive manner.

"Did you know of there being a false me?" I said, worrying that he might have taken that as a way of underestimating his intelligence, and also wondering exactly what he shouldn't have done.

"I see many things, but I did not notice this until now, and yet, I was referring to why I brought you back instead of putting you in the human world in the first place. My earlier scans of you brought about your state as when you were last human and returned you to how you were just before you entered the first world. I consider it my duty to keep all denizens in their original dimensions, and yet, against that, I returned you, and will put you in back into the first world for a second time. This goes against my duty."

"Why did you do it? And do you know why there's another me there?" I asked. "Sorry if this is bothering you." I continued, not daring of accusing him of screwing up my own mind for a cruel joke.

"...I felt pity for what you had come across in the second world. I have never felt pity before, not even for the millions that died due to Adolf Hitler's ambitions, and I fear that I may have suffered from some sort of corruption in one way or another. I believe I had an emotional experience of some kind, and yet I was not designed with emotions to make myself more efficient at my duty. As for what is causing this change, or what exactly this change is, I have no idea - but given the fact that I, for the first time ever felt pity for something spells disaster, observing either of the world's events could prove dangerous. I must now look only at the dimensional linings - the sight of death of humans could cause me to do something irrational later down the line, and I cannot allow this until this corruption lifts. I will need to scan myself to see if I can get the answers." I was of course interested, and very slightly horrified at what Giratina was saying - his voice in my head also sounded less hollow and empty, which would have been less creepy on paper, but given the fact that he could be experiencing some kind of emotion now, it could spell disaster if it causes his steady judgement to falter.

"Do you think Arceus will get involved and help if you mess up because of this?" I said, sounding worried, almost forgetting about my incident in the human world at the sheer thought of possible turmoil in the fabric of reality itself.

"He won't interfere, he didn't when my carelessness let a lot of pokemon through to the second world, and like I said - he'd likely find this interesting and wait and see what happens with excitement, rather than concern. Don't count on him to do anything about this. But needless to say, I don't think this will amount to anything, I can hopefully suppress and remove this change, so I suggest that you do not concern about this...I should feel no need to tell you any of this, I should have no obligation to waste both of our times with matters than does not concern you at all..." He said, sounding, ironically, concerned within my head - another hint of emotion, but I just had one last question to ask considering a brainwave that I had about my own predicament.

"What about Palkia? Can you not take me to see him if this human pokemon soul stuff is to do with this emotion you're having by any long shot?" I suggested. I really had no faith in the idea there'd be a connection, but I guess it was worth a shot. However...

"The lesser gods do not speak to each other, or make any form of contact - The Eternal Patriarch outright forbids us to do so, as I explained earlier. I am in no position to go against the will of my father - being a caretaker of existence also includes not risking invoking my father's wrath - he may not interfere, but I do not wish to find out if disobedience from myself or my two brothers would change that." Arceus seemed, from Giratina's perspective, like an extremely eccentric 'person' to me - my views on him being a do-nothing seemed to be correct. The concern in his voice was dissipating slightly, as he sounded more in control now. I would have pestered him to try and leak more information out of him, or to convince him to let me talk to someone who might know, or even Dialga himself, but having a being of cosmological power hovering mere meters in front of me reminded me of something important - in spite of arguing and standing your ground is an important aspect of life and a person's character as Dialga taught me, doing so to Giratina was probably not a wise idea.

"I, as I did with the three humans that visited The Great Beyond, have told you all that I know on anything that concerns you within my vast knowledge. If Arceus asked me to start my own religion, I believe freedom of information would be a staple of it. I shall transport you three hundred meters north of Treasure Town. Remember what I said, but do not obsess over what you have seen - it almost drove one of the humans who called himself Harvey to madness. There are things I now have to devote more attention to now. Farewell." He said, and before I had a chance to say goodbye to the almost friendly shadowy monstrosity, I felt myself pass out in that strange manner once more. I had almost got used to the ghostly echo of his voice in my head at this moment before I awoke back, as he said, three hundred meters north of Treasure Town. Gazing up at it sorrowfully, I realised the ultimate truth - this was my new home now - Edinburgh and the rest of the human world now felt long gone. It was a far more friendly and comfortable place to live, but the replacement I suffered there - I even felt sickly about it right now, but that was now a world apart. I knew I would not have the confidence to debate with my false self, considering the overflow of emotion that would surely happen, let alone actually prove that it was the real me.

My eyes gazed across to the guild - that was where I needed to be now - that was my niche. If I am indeed resigned to spend some years there and have a career as an explorer, then so be it - I could never appreciate it before, but now, I just hope that I'd be allowed back. The sun was very low in the sky, and the building in Wigglytuff's image appeared black minus the lights that shone through the window, making the building look alive with it's shining 'eyes' that circled periodically around the ground floor. It was tough to accept and deal with, but even if I could not find happiness in this world at all, I could at least do my righteous duty of bringing justice to wrongdoers. I could at least please my lord for it if the satisfaction of doing my duty did not sate me. And all this time, and I had barely even noticed that I had become a snivy once more, clearly working on Giratina's data that he must not have discarded just yet - it felt natural so fast, it was a little hard to believe.

"Serge, I just hope you can forgive me..." I muttered to myself as I slowly approached the guild headquarters once more, hoping copiously I wasn't going to be replaced here as well as back home. I really don't know what I'd do if that were to happen, but I knew it wouldn't be pretty...


	15. This Is The Life

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 15: This Is The Life

Contemplating on what just happened throughout the recent hours, it all felt too grand to be true. Finding a god to speak to face to face was oddly enough not that difficult, or not as difficult as you'd expect given the grand scale of it all - to think that one of the tethers to this world was inside that crater cave thing and all I had to do was go through it! Perhaps the other gods would be surprisingly easy to find, bit given that their little dimensions wouldn't need direct tethers to this world, I highly doubted it.

Adding up the situation with finding out my human life had pretty much been erased and destroyed also felt a bit too big to take in at one go, and instead of crippling desolation and despair, I merely felt great disappointment. My folks back home would never know the difference anyway, and the whole damn thing just seemed like a dream now, even if I did trust Giratina's word on the experience being completely genuine. It all gave a sense of definite closure to this whole futile quest of mine - I'd be staying here, quite possibly until I die, but as for what the others would think - well, I wouldn't have to worry about them worrying about me now. Accepting this all was far easier than I imagined, echoing my strange lack of grief when my grandfather died three years ago - I knew damn well there was nothing I could do about it, which in some ways, was more comfortable than not knowing whether it'd be possible to fix things or not, hence, my previous worries here.

However, the thing that did worry me the most, and it was something I only truly considered now - the cult of Giratina were right - there was another dimension, and their tales of pokemon not being native to my home world was a complete reality. In fact, the only thing they got wrong was that Giratina working tirelessly to return the pokemon to their home dimension was outdated. I could have acted as a self imposed prophet if everything had returned to normal for me back at my old home, but no one would believe me surely.

Adding to the sting was that I began to question whether this was Palkia's doing - and with it would bring shades of truth into that religion as well, and I wasn't sure what I found the most disturbing. Perhaps this was all some kind of sick joke by Palkia, knowing my outspoken past against his religion, knowing my love for the human race, and my love for those close to me, and taking it all away as a direct punishment for not obeying and believing his unjust moral values. But one thing remained sure, or at least very likely - souls really did exist, and this was the form of my soul - a damn wretch of a snivy.

I found myself gasping in horror for a brief moment over the legitimacy of my own faith, considering my experiences have helped prove another one correct, and even a cult to an extent, but not my own. Then I thought rationally - just because there is truth in some other faiths - it doesn't mean mine isn't legitimate - Giratina proved outright that atheism is mistaken and incorrect by essentially proving the existence of all four of the major deities to me, so I knew now, more than ever, that Dialga well and truly existed - any areas of doubt that I had growing up were finally dispelled for good. This also reinforced my views on Dialga's righteous views - of all the four that could have done this to me, it could not have been Dialga because I didn't deserve this as a morally sound human being, and Dialga only does what is fair, and that is to leave mankind to themselves while providing guidance from afar - I acknowledged his promise of not interfering directly with our lives.

I was replaced in the human world - the discovery still leaving the most filthy, rotten taste in my mouth, but there was other things to do - I had no plans to let myself be replaced either! I was a damn effective explorer, an expert in dealing with all kinds of danger here! Serge would be nothing without me, I knew he needed me, he should be begging me to reform Team Conviction with him! Nothing short of a perfect clone would ever suffice! The doubts dissipated as I walked right through town as everyone was clearing up for the day - no attention was given to anything but The Wigglytuff Guild headquarters at the other side of town, which came into close proximity in no time at all. Rubbing the dirt of my feet, I could see that it was already closed for tonight - no matter, I was going to sneak in through a 'window' anyway. The mere holes in the wall looked like they were a few meters down from the main building, and using my vines like tethers, I abseiled right down to my bedroom window, where I could see Serge getting ready for bed. Clearly, I had maintained my skills and abilities that I developed here, thank fuck for that, or I'd be in a lot of trouble!

"Hey hey hey!" I said in a cheerful and confident manner, landing on the floor, ginning at Serge - but as warm as my welcome was, he looked significantly less happy to see me. He scowled slightly in his surprised manner, as if someone had pulled a mean practical joke on him.

"...So you never made it after all, hmm...can't say I'm surprised." He said, facing away from me, lying on his bed of straw. "Chatot said you just high-tailed it, and I'm guessing it counts as you officially leaving the guild. Not that it really matters too much to me anyway, you forced me into almost being a killer, and you've ran off too many times now for me to even trust you. I'll make this snappy - I think it'd be best if you just left, and re-apply to the guild if it means that much to you, but considering your actions and motives, it doesn't seem too likely, now does it." I was not expecting, nor wanting, a response anywhere near to this level of dismissal. Breathing roughly through my teeth and drooping my eyes into a frown, I began to fight back.

"They will have to physically grab me and throw me out and trash all my documents if they don't want me here!" I said firmly, but not too loudly so that others would notice - his ungrateful attitude reeked once again. "One of the features I find pathetic among people - humans and pokemon alike - you can do all the good in the world, but you're going to inevitably remembered for the one shit thing you done - I was really hoping this would be different here, but no...you guys seem more human than I remembered. I brought damn good things to this guild, I pretty much lead to the true discoveries of fogbound lake and discovered an artifact personally created by the lord himself! And you're rejecting me because I was - for a short time - a dick. I've done far more good than bad, surely even someone like you could see that!"

"You're being an asshole again, bathing in your own ego! I really don't care how capable you are - throughout the last week, working with you has just not been a good experience at all." He said, rolling over to look right at me, and he was starting to look royally pissed off - not the welcome wagon I was hoping for at all. "I was hoping to enjoy chasing my own dreams you know, and you are getting in the way of that now with all this crap and unreliability - shame, because I really enjoyed it initially. Now, when are you going to leave - I won't tell anyone about this little talk as a goodwill gesture, ok?"

"Work isn't designed to be a nice ride, Serge!." I said, raising my voice a little higher, standing up so very straight. "And besides...let's just say things have changed - I will show far more dedication this time around!" I said, breathing even more heavily through my windpipe, which felt covered with mucus.

"Can't say I believe you - look, I've made up my mind, now please, just go away." Serge said, who looked far more collected as I felt anger and desperation rise within me as the fear of rejection and replacement climbed to new heights, and I felt forced to use a tactic that was as risky as it was unholy. I was not going to face being shunted out in my position in life again!

"...You've not done well today, have you - I did find on the way back here that you completely failed to get your exploration jobs done - didn't do a single one to a successful standard." I said, holding the straightest face I could, all the adrenaline rushing to make sure my facial muscles stayed fairly still. I really didn't care this time round that I was lying to his face, the thought of rejection ripping my sense of righteous morality, but then again, I had been doing that far more often even since I came here. Regardless of whether he was doing well or not, I still damn well deserved to reform Team Conviction - one thing that Serge couldn't complain about was me holding me back!

"You're right - today was a disaster, and I can see no way to improve if I continue going solo for quite a while." He said, sitting up on his straw bed, rubbing his nose slightly. Here we go - this is where Serge was going to realise the truth and that letting me back in was the right thing to do, for both our sakes - I could be grateful enough for this to live with my discovery hours ago, surely! I heard something quite different, however...

"Which is why I was considering forming a duo with maybe Bidoof or Corphish - this day has taught me the value of working as a pair, so teaming up with either one of them, or even both, will put my career right back on track. I honestly forgot to thank you for helping me getting my exploration skills off the ground though - genuinely!" He said, but I was having none of this backhanded sign of false gratitude - oh, how I wanted to smack the bastard across the face for that, but that'd end things there for sure. Which left me to go for my true last resort - it seemed like there was now nothing I could offer Serge in return for reforming Team Conviction, so I was left with no choice but to sink slowly to my hands and knees and beg like a little bitch.

"Serge, I have absolutely nothing." I said, as I bowed my head, my insides churning in agonizing protest as my sense of integrity shattered. "Please man, I'm begging you, and I'm telling you - things have changed - I'm no longer going to use this venture as a stepping stone to get home - I've realised the horrible truth about where I came from, and I really have nothing more to gain by screwing you over." I said and looked up. "I have nothing left to do in life except help the unfortunate and bring justice to wrongdoers." I slowly got to my feet slowly, breathed deeply, as I prepared the words in my head to my final pitch.

"We achieved great things through a mere by-product of my efforts to get home. I now realise that this is home now, and to think we can probably achieve greater things now that I am fully focused and ready to do my work for real. I will never abandon Team Conviction until you do." Serge's expression showed amusement, and I swore I heard him chuckle underneath his straight face, but it was one of warmth, instead of one keeping me away.

"So it means that much to you that you'd get on your knees and bet and whine like that? Never thought I'd ever see you do something like that. Well, since you value honesty so much, I really don't see why not – I'll trust you this one last time. Sorry if I made you beg, really - I just had to be sure you'd be committed to the team this time round. I guess nasty situations are going to be part of the job, isn't it. Well, you'd better get to sleep and explain yourself to Chatot or even Wigglytuff tomorrow morning. If I don't change my mind tomorrow, I'll be asking what happened - I'm still not entirely convinced on this 'change', but I suppose I could give you another chance since you're so insistent about it." It was at this point where Serge made unflinching eye contact with me - he was obviously about to be more serious now.

"I shouldn't have to repeat myself, but when you forced me to almost kill those poor taillows...I can see why you done it, I just never thought you could be so brutal about it. If this is going to work again, I'll fill my end of the bargain and refrain from mentioning it - just don't force me to do something like that again, OK?" Serge said, who seemed to slowly becoming less defensive as he lied back down.

"Serge, I promise I'll be in it for the team and not just my own ends." I said, smiling after a short delay - I didn't feel the need to argue about this anymore - I had luckily reclaimed my own position in life here, and I had a rock-tight grip on it. As I rested on my straw bed, which was a lot more comfy than I had remembered it to be, I became conscious in the change of my sense of value. In hindsight, I was indeed an ungrateful shitbag when put in this new perspective, but I was only going on what I knew. Sure, I had regrets, but I did what I thought would be good for myself and others at the time. Yes, I was an arsehole at times, but that didn't make me a bad person, oh no - and now, I would show everyone what a paragonic example of a person I could be, and chase the Dialgan ideal that good actions give fulfilment into people's lives and now, more than ever, was I in a position to prove this.

"Up you get Floyd!" Serge said, nudging me with his hand at the crack of dawn, as sunbeams started creeping through the hole in the wall, and instead of a slow, grouchy climb to my feet, I almost jumped up and walked right in front of Serge, grabbing my bag on the way out to the briefing room. For once, I was the first one there, and I was met with a shocked looking Chatot. Here we go again...

"You went AWOL for a day! I-" he protested, this aspect not changing whatsoever from him before I quickly handed him my 'borrowed' book from the library, and I smiled at him, which is something I thought I'd never be able to do.

"Things have changed, Chatot, I think even you will like my change in attitude. Smiles go for miles, right?" I said, smiling even broader, just to see the reaction of that middle aged bird, who looked hilariously confused.

"Er...I'll go speak to Wigglytuff to see if he's going to be happy keeping you in the guild - you did breach golden rule number whatever-it-was-again, or to put it in the guildmaster's terms, 'run away and pay', and he was pretty displeased at you. I would have kicked you from the guild and denied any re-applications, but that's up to Guildmaster Wigglytuff." The results this time were also pretty amusing - he barely went in for five seconds before he suddenly ran out of the office before giving me the all clear. Come to think of it, I was beginning to wonder what Wigglytuff did all day - he never seemed like the most active leader, with Chatot seemingly doing all the official work.

"Forgiven without consequence - seems like he noticed your change in attitude, and thinks it'd be best letting you off to maintain this bizarre happiness of yours. I would ask if you were hiding something that we should know, but for now, I'll take advantage of your unusually high spirits - if you wanted a day's break, I'm sure it could have been arranged if it caused you to, well, smile for once!" He said, clearly trying not to smile at me - he still looked as suspicious of me as ever, but for once, he didn't seem like he would quiz me on it.

I really couldn't chuckle in the irony, since me and Chatot could probably wipe the floor with any other Treasure Town inhabitants in a contest of not smiling. Soon after, the others joined in and for once, I actually shouted the morning cheers, attracting odd glances from, well, just about the entire guild, after the reputation I built up of looking like I'd rather be elsewhere. I even heard mutterings of 'is that really Floyd?' immediately after being debriefed, but I wasn't complaining - new beginnings often happen with a personal change, and while I didn't have much in life now, this new constraint was already making me appreciate my position. Even the prospect of death out there wasn't nearly as terrifying as it used to be, as I felt catching criminals was now my righteous duty more than ever.

"You weren't kidding when you said things would be different!" Serge said, following me up to select job notices. "I might even consider you a friend again, and not just a colleague, haha!"

"Oh, thank you." I said, not really sure how to take this - I was sure he'd warm back up to me within hours, but I was paying closer attention to the notice board. "Anyway, I was thinking - since not many of us hunt down and bring back wanted criminals - we should focus on it more. Can't have these bastards think they're going to get away with their misdeeds without a dosage of justice, you with me on this one?" Serge didn't seem quite as enthusiastic on this prospect as I was.

"But look here Floyd, some poor child was lead astray and is lost and their parents are paying a lot for her safe return." I shook my head slightly and tapped on the writing that said that the child was lead astray.

"This was no accident - they obviously didn't get a good glimpse of who may have kidnapped their child or left them in some forest or whatever, but problems like these are just going to happen again and again unless we crack down on the source of a lot of these issues - the criminals themselves - they need a good ass kicking, fine and or a jail sentence - it'll teach the bastards not to do it again. That's not going to happen unless we find these rotten sort though!" I could already feel myself do Dialga proud, and I was very happy with myself of how I turned this situation which should have been horrible into a great opportunity. Serge, however, was struggling to get on the same boat though.

"But what if we don't find this cubone? She might die if she's not found in time, and that's surely going to be far worse - her family would have to live with that for the rest of their lives!" Serge said, but I was ready to counter this proposition as well.

"Corphish! I think you might be good for this one - someone's daughter was last sighted near that Craggy Coast area where we were on the expedition to - you seemed in your element there, take Bidoof with you, I'm sure he'd be good for it as well." I said, handing the notice to him, which he took and read.

"You're just suggesting I have this one? Your loss buddy, that's a mighty fine wad of money you'd be getting paid! I'll do this one, and I think I'll share it with Bidoof - might get my ass kicked there if I go alone, those savages were vicious there! Well, see ya at dinner!" He said, clicking his left claw enthusiastically as he went to find Bidoof.

"You see Serge? The 'finding the cubone child' issue will now be resolved - they both know how to look after themselves, which will leave the issue of finding our kidnapper all to ourselves, and so that we can remain focused on it, do you see now?" I said, smiling broadly at him, flicking my hands impatiently.

"I guess...ah, ok, let's do this one then, but I honestly think we should focus more on rescue notices. Oh, I forgot to mention, while you were gone, there was an announcement on The Wigglytuff Guild expanding its influence. There's a small guild where I come from, but it's really struggling in favour of this one, so there's going to be jobs put up here for possible locations further afield. We should try one of those at some point I'd say, they pay a decent chunk more." He said, stretching to help warm up for the task at hand. "Remember Floyd, no unnecessary brutality."

"Aw, come on man, I was never that brutal!" I said, reading the job notice in detail. I really had to wonder why or how so many people got into danger here, but this was far from a safe world to be sure. "Now you'd think that they'd state what species the criminal was in somewhere other than the fine print - we're looking for a damn floatzel. None of this 'water beats fire' bullshit, we're going to find him and kick his sorry ass for abducting a child, and please don't waste time with restraint." I lectured as we walked briskly out of town.

"Don't push it Floyd, don't make me change my mind about this..." Serge said, grumbling as we set out to catch our criminal. There was only a general notice of where he could have went in the job notice - it merely said that he was heading north - not much to go on, but it was an extremely fresh notice, only made about three hours ago, looking at the stamped time on the notice. I trusted in the good natures of the people around here to help tell me if they had seen the two of them, and this came in the form of a shift looking electabuzz, who seemed to be tired out after what would appear to be a morning run.

"Ah, Team Conviction! I'd recognize you anywhere! My little brother would have loved to meet you if he was here with me." He said, not appearing to be any older than I am. As much as I liked the flattery, I really didn't have the time to talk.

"Did you see a floatzel with a cubone walking north?" I said, speaking firmly and rapidly, staring at him, wanting an answer quickly.

"...Uh..." He said, stalling, looking like he was in thought, being noticeably fidgety when I asked him this, and I didn't like this at all.

"I said did you see them?! Tell me now!" I said, taking a couple of steps towards him - his slightly fearful expression with a trembling jaw really made me suspicious of him - he had better not be affiliated with the floatzel...

"...Ok, he veered left off the path at the crossroads, that's what I think I saw." He said, pointing down the road, drumming his toes on the ground nervously.

"You THINK you saw it like that?" I said, being even more impatient and suspicious as ever. "If your information turns out to be correct, I won't report you as a suspicious individual to the authorities. If not...well, I hope for your sake that you can put up a convincing argument that you are in fact not buddies with this kidnapping fiend." The electabuzz paused for a moment and then cleared his throat.

"...It's all I know, Floyd." He said, calming down. "Take it easy, my memory's a bit rusty and I only saw them for about two seconds, and thought nothing of it. I'm at least trying to give helpful advice - if I had a friend who would do this to a mere child, I'd never see them again - I can tell you that right now."

"Well, of course." Serge said. "Please excuse Floyd, he didn't have much sleep last night..." He said, casting me a nasty glance as he lead us away from him and down the path in further pursuit of the criminal.

"Well, Floyd, it seems like things really have changed - I do like your new found passion, I really do - just tone it down a bit, ok? That was a bit, well, too passionate, so to speak. You don't want us looking like overzealous law enforcers, do we?" He said to me, but underneath the disapproval, there was an open friendliness in his voice - he at least saw it as an improvement, which I was thankful for. I did deeply desire to become proper friends with him again - I wouldn't lie to myself, he was a far nicer guy than I could ever be, but someone has to do the dirty stuff.

"Overzealous law enforcers eh? Better than than someone who has the duty and responsibility to stop crime and to not do anything about it." I responded. "I may be a bit pushy when it comes to this, but bear with me - I won't force you to do anything too nasty, got it? Just you leave that to me, and things will be good between us."

"...That could work." Serge said after a small delay. He said after we veered off to the left as the electabuzz described - the sparse trees that lined both sides of the path had now become a clusterfuck of tree trunks, and as if by the grace of lady luck herself, Serge spotted a faint line of crushed foliage.

"I'm no tracker, but it looks like they went this way." He continued, inspecting the undergrowth and pointing in the general direction. "No idea when he crossed here, but I'd keep quiet." I nodded in agreement and stayed about a meter behind him, making far less noise, my lighter movements and weight paying off here.

"I'll ambush him from behind if I can sneak around - a slice to both his legs will do the trick, he won't be escaping after that." I whispered in Serge's ear, making as little noise as possible as we pushed through the thick shrubs and low hanging branches. He gave a disapproving look and responded.

"It's within the protocol to offer the criminal to come with us without force - then we can attack." He said quietly back to me. As slow as that would be, I despised the thought of injuring someone innocent - they didn't deserve harm for simply being suspicious, but at the risk of letting him get away...floatzels were speedy bastards and could simply bolt it as soon as he saw us. I churned this through my head until we heard ominous mutterings soon came into earshot as we could see the bastard talking to someone out of sight, as well as the occasional rustle from something small.

"...Too young?" The floatzel said, holding the poor cubone's mouth shut, and trying his best to prevent him from struggling. "I can tell you that he's pretty strong for his age, he'll be capable of doing all kinds of menial tasks, he'll learn quickly to do everything you ask for within reason." He paused for a few seconds looking frustrated and was starting to become very impatient and worrisome, his tails twitching quickly.

"Look, I know you asked for someone a couple of years older, but this is what I could get you - I'll offer twenty percent off, but come on, hurry up, I'm sure the guild would have sent some lackeys out by now to kick my ass, hurry!" He said, as he looked over his shoulder constantly. This was all the evidence I needed that he was capturing kids to sell them off as slaves, and it was here that I was about to bring justice to him. I was gonna scare him so hard to never do something like this again, and do the same to the other guy as well - turns out that he was an ambipom - those hand-like tails always creeped me out slightly.

"...Fine, I'll accept 20% off, hand him over." He grunted and held out one of his tails to take the cubone from him, while reaching inside his bag with the other for the money. Catching the ambipom was not part of the job list, but the thought of even a black market slave trade revolted me, and I had a duty to fulfil now. Giving a gesture to the more hesitant Serge, who still didn't seem like he approved of my ambush tactic rolled his eyes, seeing that I would not be deterred, signalling to run in as soon as I sliced at the floatzel's legs. I could explain to Serge why this was the right thing to do after, but as for now...

I kept my eyes firmly on the floatzel as I sprang up from behind and with a deft twist in the air, I sliced and gave both his legs heavy gashes as I heard him scream in pain, alerting the entire forest as birds flew out of the trees in one giant mishmash of flapping wings. He fell hard on the ground, as I saw the ambipom's eyes widen in shock and fear. Before myself or Serge could do anything he dropped the cubone and immediately fled.

"Shit, shit, Team Conviction, Shit!" He yelled in an alarmingly screechy voice as he made his way rapidly through the tree branches, swinging in ways I didn't think were even possible. Sadly, justice would have to wait for him, for there was no hope in catching him - time to deal with the issue at hand.

"Floatzel, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of this child right here. I hope the law gives you what you deserve, but let those gashes remind you not do so something like this again you piece of shit! You could have ruined his enti-" I said, shouting at him before getting cut off by Serge.

"Floyd, calm down - let's just get him back." He said, nudging me from behind, giving me that infamous look of disapproval that he always seemed to give me nowadays.

"Fine, it's not like he can run anyway - get up!" I said, about to kick him while he was down in agony, but for the future endeavours with Serge, I held back for my own sake. The child said absolutely nothing, walking right beside Serge as I constantly pushed the floatzel who was having trouble walking as it continued to complain and squeal in pain.

"It hurts, it hurts!" Floatzel whined as I nudged him into town, attracting a few odd looks, while the cubone saw its parents and immediately scampered over - aww, how cute. Our job here was done as I pushed him into the police quarters, but not before a final line to him.

"Oh, so it hurts does it? Think about how many times that cubone would have been hurt, and realise that what I did to you was nothing even worth mentioning - all for a spot of cash, eh? Rest assured, I will make sure this little black market slave trading will crumble into nothing. Good riddance." I said before he was taken in by a couple of magnemites - they didn't seem much like policemen come to think of it - they probably acted as cell guards or something like that.

"See Serge? All went well aside from that ambipom escaping. Now unlike with Drowzee, we didn't need to go into a great big fight - one crippling sneak attack was all it would have needed! And before you act up - are you honestly that idealistic to think that you could have talked them out of it? Some people in the world are just dicks, and some punishment is required to stop their dickiness." I said before he could muster a protest, and yet, all I got was a strange laugh from him, looking puzzled, yet almost happy.

"Well, I do think your methods were somewhat underhand and nasty but I'm actually glad you're really committed this time. I'm sorry for doubting you, swear on my life I am...but I want to ask something, and I won't blame you if you're not going to tell me." He said, sitting down on a rock, and taking a couple of deep breaths before asking. "You're not hiding anything are you? I mean, it's honestly just really strange for me with your complete change in attitude - if you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but..." He said, stuttering slightly, as his expression quivered with nervousness as he asked me. I smiled warmly and lead him back out of town, just so no one would overhear - I didn't mind telling Serge - I had to trust him in doing this career with him, but I'd be extremely uncomfortable with letting anyone else know.

"Serge...sorry, I just needed the privacy here. Anyway, where was I, oh yes, why things have changed." I felt myself sweat in the sunlight slightly before standing straight and looking at him.

"...I did succeed in getting home. I broke a concrete rule of Dialga to do so - I went to find Giratina." I said, speaking slowly, taking breaths between every couple of words before getting interrupted.

"Giratina? I've still got no idea about this Dialga person yet." He asked - I didn't blame him to be honest, the pokemon here have had no exposure to these concepts yet.

"In short, Dialga is the deity and lord of time, and the ultimate paragon of justice - others will disagree, but it's hardly an opinion - they're just wrong, trust me. Giratina is...well...I thought he was pure malevolence and had power over the walls of the dimensions, but he was actually helpful...unlike..." I said and shuddered violently, almost feeling sick at the thought of it.

"...Unlike what the righteous tome has taught me, though it turned out that it was due to deception by Arceus. After explaining his version of reality itself, he allowed me to travel back to the human world and regain my human form, and soon after, I saw something more terrifying than Giratina himself. It started off very well, but eventually, I saw myself - and not in a mirror. What I saw was another version of me, who had replaced me - Floyd Munro..." I stalled again - the thought of seeing myself tormenting me again, causing me to shudder even more than the last time, and causing a faint taste of vomit to waver in my mouth.

"I begged to return here after I saw that - I was completely and utterly replaced in all aspects of my life, so I had no place in the human world now. Everything I had was not only gone, but stolen. It was the worst I had ever felt, even worse than when my grandparents died in hospital from a lethal flu strain - at least I was still there, but I may as well be dead in that world now. At least those close to me won't be suffering." I said, brooding and wallowing in my own ego, not so much even looking at Serge now.

"...Which is why I returned here - Giratina actually let me return, even though he didn't seem to like his decision, and with all my human life completely behind me, I had nothing in life except to follow the lord Dialga and to make the lives of the people of the pokemon world better - to say I was relieved when you or circumstance didn't replace me in this world would be a huge understatement. And that, Serge, is why I needed to be back in Team Conviction - bringing justice to criminals and supporting the unfortunate is the only thing I can live for now, so I have now decided to dedicate the rest of my life to it. While this fate of mine is certainly tragic, it has allowed limitless potential to please Dialga, and perhaps I can even get him to smile upon me as I continue to do great things here - we...we shall do this together." I smiled broadly, even in the face of what I remembered - horrible as it was, it had already happened, and there was nothing I could do to change it - the past can go fuck itself!

"Serge - are you with me in making Team Conviction the best exploration, rescue, and justice-bringing team this world has ever seen? Even those Team Raider fellows will acknowledge us as superiors!" It was clear that Serge's initial ambitions weren't quite as high as this as he turned around to consider what I have said, tilting his head in quite a few directions before turning around, matching my smile.

"Absolutely!" From here on out, we became fully driven for success, and boy were we achieving it. We agreed, after much debate, to take turns of picking jobs, often doing more than one a day if we could. Serge seemed very content to do surveying jobs, but I was still firmly fixed on scaring the black market slave trade into complete disintegration. If they would not come to civilized ways, civilized ways would come to them, but the rest of the guild seem far too uninterested in keeping the law, as should be their duty. We were given the power and responsibility to try and prevent crime and bringing criminals to justice, and, in turn making this world a better place to be. I'd better start convincing people of this when everyone is back at the guild headquarters.

"Alrighty then, with that in mind, want to just head back now? Got nothing else to do, not enough time or information to make progress on dealing with the scum today, unfortunately. Tomorrow though..." I said, rubbing my hands firmly and quickly, feeling the friction heat on them.

"Well, you did say I could choose the next job - but perhaps I can compromise if it means that much to you from time to time." We said, not bothering to walk through town, going to the outside of the buildings as a short cut - the town looked intensely busy as I expected at this time of the week - the pushy salesmen royally pissed me off, and I just couldn't be arsed with them this time around.

"Well, I'd be more than grateful for that." I said smiling, holding my breath for a few seconds. "Say, now we've got the crap out of the way...I know this sounds clichéd, but do you think we can become friends again?" I said, cringing as how sappy that sounded. Serge laughed slightly at this request, rubbing his hands much like I did earlier.

"So does this no-nonsense justice-bringer actually a softie in disguise who only wants to be friends then? Yeah, sure, why not." Serge said, cheekily grinning at me, gently poking fun at me - not that I really liked this, but I guess it was all in good nature.

"...I'm not a softie!"I said with a quavering frown before it broke, and airy laugh escaping. "Well, considering the...situation...I just want to make the world a better place - it's my duty now that, well...I'd rather not mention it again if that's not too much trouble." I doubted I'd ever get over it, but it's not something that's ever going to change, no use worrying about it - but the memories would be there forever. I almost saw it as a test now - perhaps I could achieve so much here that I'd see those days as being inferior, but I'd have to work damn hard and wait and see. We passed by the police station again - I sure hoped that the floatzel had an uncomfortable cell to stay in, but considering it had a rather silly looking magnezone design on the top of it, I had many doubts about that. I did often wonder if the tops of the 'important' buildings here got changed depending if ownership changed hands, or maybe it was a family or species thing, always keeping it in line. I guess it'd make sense, with different species being biologically suited to different tasks.

Upon approaching the side of the office window, I heard a deep voice that sounded mechanical and electrified, as if it were some kind of robot that had too much electricity and power running through it that could have only belonged to Sheriff Magnezone. As curious as I was to see the head of the law enforcement and the justice system, maybe, I'd consider it beyond my roles to listen into what he was saying, but I heard something else from within that would force me into eavesdropping. The one who responded was a voice I only faintly recognized - the loud, buoyant voice that I was used to hearing sometimes within the guild was replaced with a far more direct, serious tone of voice that barely resembled my guildmaster - it had to be extremely important to warrant him to break is ditzy demeanour - I've only seen him break it once before - with Chatot when he tried to screw me, Chimeco and Corphish out of the expedition.

"...I do trust my source, but if that's not good enough for you, I checked myself - and it's gone! I told you yesterday - do you believe me now?!" He said, sounding flustered, and quite frankly a little scary - there was something about his seeming split personality that really bothered me, or it seemed like a split personality at least. There was a audible crackle of electricity before the robotic voice of Magnezone responded.

"Yes, I do. Did you see any other obvious changes to the surrounding area? Do you think there was an earthquake or other natural phenomenon that caused this to happen?" He responded - it was impossible to tell what he was feeling, but I only assumed he picked up human emotions - I think.

"What are they on about?" Serge whispered to me, looking pretty worried, but had the sense to not make any further noise or movement as we listened in hard.

"No - there was barely any change, except I felt as though I could not go within ten meters of the place - it felt like what I always thought death was like. Other than that, it looked the same besides the obvious problem. Remember what I said about how I thought no criminal would go this far...I think I could have been wrong." He said, his direct tone fading into an anxious one as he tapped his foot on the floor fairly loudly. "I'm going to take Chatot to investigate in more detail - this is, well, to put it bluntly, this - this is a crisis we could be dealing with here."

"I do not approve of alerting Chatot to this - how do you know he won't keep it to himself? If this discovery spreads, it could cause complete hysteria from all of Treasure Town's civilians and beyond. If we can keep order, it's at least better than chaos." I started breathing heavier - this unknown crisis right here - it was vague as vague could get, and the fear of the unknown was the most primal of all fears in man. Serge looked just as scared as I was, shivering slightly, gripping my shoulder tightly with his right hand. I concentrated to control my breathing, since I really didn't want to explain myself for snooping in on the law.

"I'm getting older, Magnezone, I need his help. On top of that, I would trust Chatot with everything I own, and my life with it! I know he may come across as a bit ratty at times, but he is one of the most competent all round people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting - he will not tell anyone else, and neither will I." He paused for a second, breathing a few times. "I'll head out tonight with him and bring torches - we'll be fine, but I can't help but wonder - what if we find nothing? What if this continues? They'll find out eventually and blame us for hiding it."

"Give it three days, Guildmaster, then tell the guild and administer non-disclosure agreements to them." He said, the electrical crackles becoming more erratic - was it his expression of anxiety?

"I'll order an expedition after that - I'll get the help of the entire guild - should we not tell some of the elite exploration teams? There must be some way to contact Team Raider, you know they're twice as competent as I could ever be." Wigglytuff said, sounding even more worried.

"You know as well as I do they'll spread it as fast as possible - they crave attention and fame, and will undoubtedly spread the discovery. Leave that with me, Wigglytuff. You should get ready to investigate, I shall leave it to you." He finished, followed by Wigglytuff hyperventilating for some strange reason.

"I'll get right to it! Yoom-tah!" He said, sounding loud and overly-cheery once more before running at the door, almost breaking it as he ran into the street with the door taking a nasty bash. My mind seemed to shift very quickly away from the slave trade and to this unknown danger, but at least this time, I would know when I'd find out. As we made our way back to the headquarters, I mulled over it, and looking at Serge, I knew our thoughts aligned - within three days, we would find out. A part of me didn't even want to know - yes, I was certain that the two of them would fix it. Their experience and expertise would pull through - but if they didn't, the truth of the matter would be revealed. We knew almost nothing about this at all from the time being, but until that third day came, we knew naught but one fact about this - it was bad.


	16. Premonition

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 16: Premonition

Dinner was nice as usual - this was one of the few attitudes that didn't change upon my discovery, as it still seemed to be at its fairly stellar standard. Loudred and Wigglytuff were eating the fastest as usual, but Chatot was trying - and struggling - to keep up with them, and I was pretty sure I knew why, and I was expecting some kind of announcement. While I did enjoy my food, myself and Serge were eating very slowly - seemed like he was also rattled by what we had heard earlier. Everyone seemed a little quieter than normal, even the chatterbox Sunflora, so I guess it was time for me to try and convince my fellow guild members to put more of their time and energy into crime prevention.

"Say, Loudred." I said, chewing my food, my mouth nearly being full of it before swallowing. "Gone any after lawbreakers lately? Past week or so? The guild as a whole doesn't seem to be into it much."

"There's quite a few outside the guild who do that sort of stuff, I didn't sign up for it. Pretty much everyone here signed up to be explorers, and just doing rescue service as just something else to do." He said before quite literally throwing the rest of the food into his oversized mouth.

"There was like, a big crime wave before the guild got a license to organize law enforcement jobs, anyway, see ya!" He said, walking out slowly of the dining hall, burping loudly as he stumbled through the doorway. I didn't think too much of the idea of people casually taking up law enforcement as something to do if they just felt like it - if it were up to me, it'd be enforced on everyone here to take their damn turn - laws have no meaning unless it's enforced by people such as myself who are wanting to be dedicated. I did respect, however, that Serge didn't want to do it all the time, since like Loudred said, it wasn't what he primarily signed up for.

Before too long, Chatot finished, with a bit of broccoli hanging from his beak, and Wigglytuff was seen guiding the fast-eater Loudred back into the dining hall - announcement drill, incoming...

"Attention!" Chatot said, swallowing the chunk of broccoli, which looked to be a bit much for him. "Short, but important announcement! Croagunk, put your fork down! Good...Wigglytuff and I need to attend an important meeting tonight - this was a very last minute announcement due to communication problems with the exploration council, and we predict we will be back at about this time tomorrow. If I see ANY damage to the guild headquarters, there'll be a whole lot of trouble to pay! Sunflora, Loudred, it's been decided that you two are to be in charge while we are gone - we'll be coming to you first to make sure everything's been run to our usual high standards. Good luck with your work tomorrow!" He said, suddenly smiling and waving cheerily, before muttering incomprehensibly to Wigglytuff as they left the building, seeming extremely worried.

The quiet chatter kicked up in volume drastically as they left, and everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing - 'Who the hell orders a meeting at night?' I heard that the explorers council were a little eccentric, but this just seemed bizarre, and judging from what they said at the police station, I was guessing they were full of shit. I had half a mind to leave immediately to try and shadow them, but between the entire guild almost sure to see me sneak out and the fact we'd be told in three days anyway, I just had to grudgingly make do with staying here.

"Well, if you remember, they were going to investigate something, somewhere, that was missing." I said to Serge quietly as we left the dining hall, as Serge patted me on the shoulder.

"Floyd, I honestly don't think this is worth us getting worked up about for the moment - even if it's important, it doesn't exactly concern us directly, right? Have a little faith in Wigglytuff and Chatot. Look I know you don't get on with Chatot and think Wigglytuff's an over glorified clown, but they're some of the most professional explorers around - they're sure to get it sorted." He said, trying to comfort me with a friendly pat on the arm.

We entered our room again, and to make this incoming sleep even harder, there was a far bigger draft than usual coming through the 'window.' As if getting to sleep without what the two of them were up to would was easy to begin with!

"I won't lie, Floyd - I really want to know as well. Still, you heard what Magnezone said - if the information were leaked, it could cause a lot of hysteria." He said, as I rolled over on my side to face him.

"And if it's that important, desperate, serious or whatever to cause a fuck load of panic, then it's obviously a big deal - what if this 'big deal' affects us?" I said to him, wide eyed before shifting my weight back into my back. "Well, they say that the strongest and oldest of all fears is the fear of the unknown - and I've had a lot of that lately."

"Panic's already starting to set in due to luminous spring still being out of commission - if no pokemon can evolve...well, I think you can guess what'll happen in the long run. It's been temperamental before, but only for hours at a time." What sloppy, inept world design! Although divine intervention and alteration did seem to come into play when the pokemon arrived in the human world - at least Arceus knew when he made a shit design and rectifying some of them, thinking back to those ugly amphibian humanoids back in The Great Beyond. Serge told me before continuing on, sorting the straw beneath him. "Although you wouldn't notice it too much, it tends to only be discussed much between families, speaking about other species's evolutions is taboo as hell, but it's a pretty old sentiment though that's starting to fade away."

"And I just wanted to catch criminals...I may yet regret coming back here, but regardless, when the time comes, we're helping Wigglytuff sort this." I yawned loudly, making a very daft looking face that I'm sure Serge would have laughed at if it weren't for this topic on our minds. "You waking up early tomorrow as per usual with Chatot gone for the day?"

"Well..." He grinned slightly. "That would depend on Loudred and Sunflora, and how much they'd want to enforce it now wouldn't it." I smiled - I liked his train of thought here. My body felt exhausted even if my mind was still racing, but eventually, I managed to get my mind to submit to my exhausted body and force myself into a reasonable sleep. I didn't dream of what myself and Serge were yammering on last night for some reason, but instead found myself in the human world as a Snivy - guess I hadn't completely let go of it yet. Still, such dreams didn't mean much much like what my father said, unless of course they were those strange visions. I didn't pass out and zoom into that bright light stuff that gave me sight beyond sight - another thing that was unanswered.

"You should be getting up soon - I was kind enough to let you ALL have an extra hour!" Loudred woke us up, being the living alarm clock that he was, but that extra hour really did the spot. Standing in front of Loudred just seemed unnatural and uncomfortable standing there, and neither of them had an authoritative presence, even though Sunflora seemed happy and relished this opportunity to address the guild. They shifted slightly, as Loudred was struggling to keep eye contact with everyone as we joined the rest of the guild, who seemed less uptight and strict with their briefing positions.

"...Ah FORGET it! You already know what to do - do a job on the notice board and file in the report after your done! Blah blah, smiles go for miles, blah, dee, blah, just get to it, dismissed!" Loudred suddenly yelled, interrupting Sunflora, who looked very pissed at Loudred destroying her opportunity to be the leader for the day. Loudred left almost immediately up the ladder as Sunflora followed, unable to hide her frustration. At least the formalities were done with quickly, since I was now sick to the teeth of having to yell the motto - sure, I was relatively happy in the guild now in light of what happened, but I'd happily see the backside of the mundane cheering I was forced to do on a daily basis.

Serge and I were the last ones to leave the main headquarters to pick our job for the day, and half of the guild had already started. It was no race, but I hoped that Serge wouldn't pick something too ambitious - we were over an hour behind anyway.

"I swear the rescue missions get taken up really quickly, havn't seen any in a while." Serge said, looking over the board, tapping his foot on the ground.

"Well, I can imagine that you'd get more gratitude for saving wee Jimmy's life rather than just a surveying mission, or recovering lost property. Hey, it means that the population here are in fairly safe hands, right?" I responded.

"I suppose it would be, well, highly pragmatic for us to only save people from being trapped or worse for just the money." Serge responded, and I found myself agreeing with him - although I still question the stupid fucks who wander into the Amp Plains without the fighting and survival know how - hell, even me and Serge had a brush with lethal danger there! Speaking of which...

"Well, how about this survey and report on the south-western Amp Plains?" Serge asked me, which I grunted at - the fuckers there hunted in packs, at least in most other places they tended to get rowdy by themselves.

"Nah, hows about we do a more constructive survey - the forest around the luminous spring, or the evolution site as it's also known as. There'll probably be a lot of people there that are also taking notes and all that kind of stuff." I responded, in which Serge seemed to agree on - thank fuck for that, I was in no mood to go back to The Amp Plains!

"Alright, I'll get us the food, meet at the west side of town in ten minutes." And that's just what we did, and it didn't take too long to reach the forest, no more than ninety minutes or thereabouts. The trees hard fairly dark leaves, which shrouded the undergrowth with a dim haze, but there was a clear path right through that had obviously been made for ease of use for pokemon seeking an evolution. A Nidoqueen was standing just outside of the forest looking frustrated and impatient.

"I told her that the spring doesn't work - ugh...you here to investigate?" She asked us as we were about to enter.

"Yes, we're just inspecting the trees for odd signs and other abnormalities in case they have something to do with it." Serge told her as we started walking in.

"Well, you're not the only on, people are getting more nervous now, I'm surprised the Wigglytuff Guild hasn't taken more official action." She said, still looking annoyed.

"It's more commercial and money driven than you might think." I said as I chipped in.

"Well, I won't keep you guys longer, you probably have a lot of work to do." She said as we walked into the thick forest path and waved her goodbye. Pine trees everywhere! I never knew they could dim out the sun this much, or whatever this planet's local star's called! Still, it wasn't exactly too hard to move off the beaten track to give them a good look at.

"Shouldn't you be better at this than I am?" Serge asked, though I had no idea what he was getting at as I turned my head around.

"Eh?"

"Well, look at you, with your leaf weapons and...well, you get the idea." Serge said, clearly reverting far into stereotypes I never even knew existed, and I wasn't following his rather stupid logic here.

"So therefore, I must be some kind of expert on trees and nature. No, I was no nature person back then, and it hasn't really changed now. I'm really surprised they didn't even recommend a knowledge on the trees for the job - you people still have much to learn about higher organization." I said and choked, regarding some hypocrisy there. "Still, I'll have a look to see if there's any glaring strange stuff" I said, climbing one of the trees.

"You think this is what Wigglytuff and Chatot went off to discuss with this meeting they mentioned?" He asked, as he took a look at the tree trunks from the ground.

"Could be." I said, climbing among the branches. "I'm not seeing anything blatantly out of the ordinary here. If we have time, Serge, mind if we take a look at the spring itself?"

"I've been there a few times to see friends and family evolve. Still, I don't see why not, it's a pretty sight, or at least it was the last time I was there." He called up to me - he seemed to be having as much luck as I did - zero.

"Reality is buddy, I think if there was some change in the trees, it'd be too subtle for non experts like us to notice - if it were obvious, it'd have been pointed out way back." I said after climbing among the branches for about half an hour and meeting up again with Serge, being relatively undisturbed by aggressive natives.

"Shame, turns out it was a waste then - still, I might as well show you the spring since we're here." He said as he signalled me down and guided me back onto the path - it wasn't marked out professionally, but it had been walked on so many times, it seemed to be compact dirt for ages now. I had only imagined that before their civilization, all pokemon were drawn to these springs when it was their time to evolve - still shit compared to the far simpler method back in the human world!

The spring was very crowded, with all manner of different species there, the rather frantic chatter making it difficult to even hear what Serge was saying, or seeing what the spring looked like, but I did notice that we did enter a circular clearing, where the trees just about formed a perfect circle around the spring. I half expected to feel some sort of supernatural presence or feeling as I did from other, well, odd places such as at The Fogbound Lake, but I felt nothing over everyone yammering and pacing around. I did however manage to squeeze past a couple of fat lickitung brothers to take a look at the spring itself - and it indeed seemed to at one point look majestic, but it didn't seem to be all gone, with a mud path that went through the pond to an obelisk that must have been human sized, but a very plain obelisk at that - just stone, dull grey grey in colour, and in the shape of a narrow, tall cone. I supposed there must have been one of these in the oceans here, to say the least for the sea-bearing pokemon to evolve! It was a very curious sight, but aside from that, there was really not much more to see - me evolving? Nah, it took me a while to get used to this body, I had no intentions of living through that again! Shrugging, as I turned to join Serge to discuss what we were going to do next, I saw someone very familiar, and while not being as mobbed as usual, there were still a couple of people around him, trying to ask him questions.

"Ahah, Dusknoir!" I said, running over to him. "You here investigating the spring as well?" He turned to look at me, seeming happier to see me than the two fans of his, and nodded.

"Ah yes, curiously, this rather serious problem seemed to happen not long after I arrived on this continent, or island, it's actually relatively small in comparison to other continents for that matter - I trust you are here doing the same?" He asked with his usual friendly demeanour.

"That we are, and, well, we found out we weren't exactly qualified for this, y'know, since we don't know this place well enough to spot any oddities." I said back to him, and he seemed quite concerned, but not for us being shabby.

"I'm actually pretty frightened about this, even though I'm often regarded as fearless. Why would I be when I can evolve no further? I can't help but think this could just be the start of something bigger - this surely can't be some fluctuation of some sort, and I really should be looking more heavily at other effects that could be happening, places we'd never think of looking. Truth be told, I'm not an expert here either, I should probably get out of their way." He said as he prepared to leave amongst the bustling crowd. Serge joined me again after that before Dusknoir spoke again.

"Aside from that, I take it you've had no luck finding a way home Floyd?"

"Nah, it's been called off sadly, I tried every possible thing - no luck sadly." I wasn't prepared to tell even a fellow Dialgan that I actively sought out Giratina and succeeded, and I couldn't help that I had spun quite a large web of lies by this point. I guess when I'm under a lot of pressure, I too had wavered slightly from the righteous path, but this was for my own protection from punishments I wouldn't deserve - no, this was absolutely fine, surely!

"I probably wouldn't ask him about it again, he looked upset at you even mentioning it." Serge said, even though I was only mildly sad at it, let alone miserable enough to show.

"I see - well, I have other things to be getting on with, let us meet again soon." He said and departed fairly quickly.

"That was quick of him, and don't worry Serge, I'm starting to truly accept what happened, I can't find it in my to lose too much sleep over it now - we might as well head back and try and do a small job before dinner's served." I said, and lead him away from the spring and out of the forest on the way back to town.

Picking a disgracefully novice job that first timers should have taken felt mean, but practical. Wouldn't make us look too good, but then again, neither would not doing anything at all - just some kid that lost his toy in the cave by the beach where I was washed up on - took less than an hour to find it - stupid child. My mind always wondered to what Wigglytuff and Chatot were up to all this time, but waiting was all I could do at the moment.

They didn't arrive at dinner, and I wondered where they were - they were due to appear about now, but they didn't come at all. In fact, even as the anxious guild members slowly went to bed, they were still absent. I knew Serge was also thinking about it as well, as he shuffled in his straw bed to try and get comfortable, but as I slowly lay down on my bed, I did have a strange thought as I remembered what Dusknoir said about my 'dimensional screams' - one of his friends, that drapion guy, had completely mastered it into total remote viewing across time and space. I highly doubt I was ever going to be able to do that, but perhaps I could force a vision of Wigglytuff and Chatot if I took hold of something they held and took Serge with me, I might be able to get a glimpse of them! Worth a try!

"Serge...don't fall asleep just yet." I said, murmuring my words a wee bit, trying to be discreet about this. He rolled over to face me, letting me know that he was listening. "Give it about twenty minutes - I might be able to find out what Wigglytuff and Chatot are doing right now, without even leaving the guild HQ. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Wait a minute Floyd, you're going to try to force a vision or something?" Serge asked, having caught on quickly.

"Absolutely, I don't know if I can get it to work, but it's worth a try. Still, I want to be discreet about it, let's wait until everyone's asleep - it'll be far easier if I had something that they own in my hand, hopefully they left something lying around, or sneak into Chatot's room if it's not locked." I said, and bided my time for all other noises in the guild to stop - the time was now here.

Walking into the main hall, which was a bit messier than usual without Chatot's discipline, we started our search. Of course, Wigglytuff's office was locked, and unfortunately, so was Chatot's room. Fuck!

"I know, Floyd, into the food storage room." Serge whispered and lead me inside, and opened a half empty barrels full of a very familiar apple.

"Perfect Apples? Sure Wigglytuff loves them, but I'm not sure it'd work - I mean, I guess it'd work better with a relic or some other kind of personal treasure that has been with him for years." I said, picking one up and looking at it - it was huge, I just about had to use both hands to hold it!

"Alright then, bear with me Serge - I've never tried to make a vision happen on purpose before." I said, not really knowing what to do. Concentrate? That's pretty vague in this circumstance. I tried holding the apple in different ways, even tried holding Serge's hand while doing it, but I was really struggling to find the key mindset for it.

"It's been fifteen minutes Floyd, are you sure you can get it to work?" Serge asked, resting his hand on my shoulder as I juggled the apple in my arms.

"Serge, I understand it at least looks strange, just give me some time." I said as I tried to let my consciousness drift as I held onto it, and eventually my patience paid off as I heard a familiar ringing in my ears as I felt things blacken around me as I zoomed into the light once more - too bad I couldn't really remember how to do it.

I was greeted with the sight of Wigglytuff - too bad at this point, he wasn't with Chatot and was running after three women, who I recognized as being celebrities around here - Team Charm I believe they were called. And they all looked at least twenty years younger than what they are today! Useless!

"...Fuck, sorry, only got a clip of Wigglytuff's past. Nah, I'm going to try again, try not to fall asleep Serge, promise?" He nodded as I tried a different apple this time - after fiddling around for five minutes this time, I got yet another useless vision. Putting the apple carefully back, I decided to try one last time before I'd feel too sleepy to concentrate - I was starting to build up a buzzing headache from these visions I was making as well, so this would definitely be my last try.

"Last one Serge, I'm shattered!" I said, and managed to make a vision once more - this time, he was thankfully with Chatot, and looked like he was in his mid fifties again. The present, or near enough, I hoped. This time, Wigglytuff and Chatot both seemed to be in a state of deep and dire fear, and were running and flying respectively far faster than I thought they could even move! They kept glancing at each other every few seconds, with shaking mouths and beaks, not caring that saliva was escaping from them, and their eyes being damn bloodshot.

"It's already happening!" Chatot croaked, as they moved very quickly what seemed like the foggy forest of all places. "It seemed dead - everywhere seemed dead, even I felt dead there! Did you?" Wigglytuff nodded quickly and continued to run.

"I lied to Magnezone when I said that I had already seen that it was gone - I just had to see it for myself." He panted heavily as he ran right through the bog, not even seeming to phase him or even slow him down at all.

"So he also backed up the claim that someone did this on purpose?! Makes sense considering that he looked half beaten to death."

"That's right Chatot. Whoever would go as far to steal one of them goes beyond even the most heinous of criminals - far beyond any murderer that I have had the misfortune of ever dealing with!" He said, his fear, slowly turning into determination and even anger. His mannerisms seemed to have completely changed as well - no 'yoom-tahs' this time!

"Chatot, I'm closing off all guild facilities except for the notice board for all non guild members. The guild is stopping all exploration events and all jobs - we are going to dedicate everyone's - and I mean everyone in the guild, Chatot, to discover who this...this bastard is, find him, prevent this crisis and make sure he receives the maximum punishment." Chatot looked quite scared of Wigglytuff - and I really didn't blame him - for a white and pink furred puffy cuddly looking thing, he really put his foot down.

"Wigglytuff, this is unlike you!" Chatot said, looking flustered.

"I wish I could be my usual self, but if it comes down to it, it may cause ruin to everyone on this continent or beyond for that matter! I'm alerting the guild as soon as we arrive - hopefully we can make it before they leave for their jobs tomorrow."

"Er, agreed, Wigglytuff!" Chatot said, obviously a little surprised that Wigglytuff decided to grab the reigns this tightly. "Still, I wonder what could drive someone to do this..." I tried desperately to stay in the vision - what was stolen?! Where did they go?! Who warned them that this was happening?! However, the ringing started, and I tried firmly to stay in, but the ringing was getting louder as my headache started to sear until I felt myself being kicked out of the vision quite roughly!

"Aaaahh, fuck fuck fuck!" I said, clutching my head in agony as I got to my feet, trying to keep balance. "T...take us back to the room, I'll tell you all I know, ow!" I gritted my teeth trying not to yell out in pain too much to avoid waking anyone. Soon after I explained everything that I saw.

"Convenient how important details were missed out - but we're getting involved whether we like it or not. It's apparently got really bad, and that there's some evil bastard behind it. The guild will be going through a radical shift and devote its entire efforts to finding him or her, so prepare yourself for that" I said, rubbing the back of my head firmly to deal with the stress. "...I am actually terrified, Serge, I won't lie, however, I trust you'll do everything that you damn well possibly can to help track this malevolent shithead down?"

"And you're sure that you didn't hear something out of context? This seems very drastic, especially by Wigglytuff's standards."

"Exactly my point Serge! If it's pushed even Wigglytuff to such ends, then it must be in dire straights! I'm probably going to get no sleep tonight - if they send us somewhere to help track this monster down, I'm gonna need 5 oran berries to stay up." I said and shivered - my body was starting to get exhausted, but my mind was storming all over my head.

"Do your best to sleep Floyd." Serge said and rolled over into his sleeping position. "Didn't think something like this would ever happen during my lifetime. If you said you recognized the foggy forest, then couldn't it be..." I inhaled deeply and stopped him right there.

"Not another word Serge - or I'll get no sleep for a week! Goodnight!" I said firmly and lay down on my side, not dare wanting to think about what it could be. I bumped my head against the straw a few times, as if I was trying to physically through that thought out, but after about three entire hours past, I fell into a light sleep. Good thing too, since getting up on Loudred's command turned out to not be too hard, though I still felt like a bit of a zombie from the lack of sleep.

"This is it, let's just hang around and await our fate, if that doesn't sound too cheesy." Serge said as we walked on through to wait for Loudred and Sunflora, and in turn, Wigglytuff and Chatot.

"Well...it seems like they havn't arrived yet - I guess we should do our jobs now as they would have wanted us to. Smiles go for miles, blah blah blah, get to it." Loudred said, who was ironically not nearly as loud when put on the spot in front of people. They could enter at any moment - this exact moment included, as Chatot seemed to nosedive down the ladder shaft, crashing into the floor slightly, narrowly rolling out of the way for Wigglytuff who landed a little better.

"No!" Chatot said loudly and clearly, with everyone, including myself, falling back into lone. "No you will not 'just get to it!'" He said, sounding raspy from the intense flying, and as for Wigglytuff - he reeked badly of sweat, but I didn't blame from - from what I saw, they had been flying and running prospectively for twelve straight hours! Everyone else aside from me and Serge thought that they were furious and as Sunflora ran over and apologized in rapid fire, she was dismissed to stand with the others.

"It's fine, you didn't do anything wrong. But someone else did, and it's almost unspeakable. Well, not really, since we're about to tell you." Meanwhile, Wigglytuff ran into his office and literally threw ten pieces of paper at us, handing one to Chatot, keeping one to himself, which he scribbled something on briefly. Non-disclosure agreements - we can't repeat anything said to anyone outside the guild.

"Sign those and hand them back, quickly now!" Chatot said, looking urgent, and nobody responded, with Diglett and Dugtrio having a lot of difficulty doing so, considering they don't even have hands, and got some help from Chimeco, who was using telekinesis.

"Ok, now I urge you not to panic here, for what I am about to tell you will be most shocking and grave." Chatot said as he cleared his throat, taking a small drink of water - he really looked shaken here badly - he knew he didn't want to say it, he didn't want it to be true.

And he had every reason to think that.

"There has been...gah, I'll make this blunt! The time gear at The Fogbound Lake has been stolen by an unknown person!" He said, gasping heavily, as the rest of them were stunned in disbelief. Even the rather stoned looking Croagunk seemed shaken badly like this when he fell on his arse in shock. Sunflora screamed in horror and chattered absolute nonsense, while Loudred almost drowned the place out with random swearing. Only I had my voice louder when I suddenly yelled so loud I swore I almost ruptured my vocal chords.

"WHO WOULD DEFILE MY LORD'S PROPERTY?! HOW?!" I screamed, my voice cracking as I forced it so hard, it hurt badly, but I could simply no longer control it anymore as shock and fury took control over everything else for a those moments. "HOW DID THEY KNOW IT WAS THERE...WHO TOLD THEM?! WHO BROKE THE PROMISE TO UXIE?!" I said, standing back, pointing fingers at each and every one of them, feeling tides of searing blood moving all throughout my limbs, eventually reaching the fingertips as my mouth experienced a very sudden drought as I coughed and spluttered.

"Floyd! Calm down and apologize!" Chatot shouted at me after my brief outburst. "I know this is bad, but at least try to remain composed, and I know the guild well enough to know that no one, not even you Floyd, is stupid enough to tell anyone about the time gear!"

"All fine and easy - I really don't know what's going to happen, but I have a hunch we will be completely fucked if we don't get that time gear back to where it belongs!" I croaked, shuddering upon my leaked curse there. "Worst case scenario, time itself stops!" This only caused more people to slowly lose their composure, which was when Wigglytuff finally intervened, and yelled at us so loudly, most of us fell backwards due to the sheer force of his voice, myself included.

"This is why we had you sign those papers - if the rest of the town found out, you can guess the result. If the entire town was as hysterical as you are currently Floyd..." Chatot said, waiting for everyone to get up and to stop panicking. "I'll leave the rest to Wigglytuff."

"Ok, yes, things look grim." He said, looking even more serious than Chatot - by this point, everyone was standing at attention, not saying anything, nor looking outside of his eyes. "But remember - of all the people in the town who know about this, we are by far the most qualified group of individuals who can stop this monster! And that is what we will dedicate our entire efforts to from here on until he is caught and the time gear returned!"

"If any of you find the prospect of hunting down a criminal this vile frightening, just think of what will happen if we don't find him! That sounds far scarier to me! Listen, we're all scared here - fear isn't always a bad thing, but as for today, we need to plan our actions, plans and methods to securing this mission. Do this, and not only will we prevent unseen future horrors, but we will also likely be crowned as heroes, archived for the future to see! And for good reason! Each and every one of you is capable of doing great things, and I imagine each having an important role to play here! Taking a brief group of questions now." He said, and puffed down slightly as Bidoof piped up.

"Did you ever go to that meeting?"

"...That was completely made up, we heard reports of someone else discovering The Fogbound Lake, and reported that missing time gear, and we decided to investigate without you knowing to prevent a panic as what just happened now." Chatot said. "It was none other than Dusknoir that tipped us off, and he will almost definitely be helping us with our mission. Uxie was too enraged and afraid by his recent failure to protecting the gear to answer Dusknoir's questions, but after we arrived, we managed to calm him down, and he identified this 'time thief' as a grovyle of some kind - he also worked alone. Nothing else is known about him at the time."

"Based on what we know, do you think it might be possible that Dusknoir might have just lied and stole it himself?" Serge said beside me, which did cause a brief surge of anger from me, and by the looks of things, quite a few others, as angry glances were fired in a big group right at him.

"Extremely unlikely - why would he have drawn attention to it then? If he really was the thief, then surely he would have kept it a very close secret!" The surge within me caused me to bring back what I said earlier, which didn't go down well then, and wasn't going to down well this time either.

"Maybe the reason how someone managed to find it is because someone in this guild might have let slipped how to get to the lake - of course, I highly doubt someone's collaborating with some top tier criminal since nobody here knew of the gear's location, but..." My voice trailed off as it was my turn to get the dagger-like glances. "...Uh..."

"Trust." Wigglytuff said. "Is of utmost importance in the guild, Floyd. As a guild, we are collectively very talented explorers, but that doesn't mean that someone else can't find it in the same way we can. But I might as well ask anyway - did anyone say anything about the lake or the time gear to anyone outside?" There was no answer at all, as the only sound was a slight gust of wind that entered from a window behind us, ruffling my leaf.

"Very well, I'll continue on then. Our only lead right now is that our target is a grovyle - Uxie didn't say anything else, but be warned - Uxie did describe him as being incredibly agile and deadly, and could have very easily killed him on the spot. The fake groudon for defence didn't last long at all, so if you do find him, do not expect to be able to beat him into submission by yourself, or perhaps even in pairs. Do so at the risk of your own life - if he has it in him to try to cause a rip in time of whatever that stuff means, he will most likely have it in him to kill. I will not warn you of this again - remember, courage is very important for exploration, and in many other walks of life, but overconfidence and outright stupidity here will likely get you killed."

The silence wasn't broken after this, with everyone sharing that nervous expression that seemed to almost be identical in spite of all being different species, but in my mind, I was picturing it now. Some grovyle, evil and twisted in the highest sense - I cannot kill by orders of Dialga, but if he was to be executed I would not protest. He was the target for me - everything I done now felt like practice for this. This goes far beyond my selfish desires to return home - this was going to be the most important point in my life surely - preventing a calamity, and handing down Dialga's righteous judgement on this fiendish miscreant. Fantasies of me torturing him in delightfully despicable manners propped into my head - I wanted nothing more to see the return of the time gear and for him to scream in revolting agony. Determination was going to guide my path now, I could feel it in my blood, as I clenched my fingers, listening to the rest of the mission brief.

"This grovyle had a pale complexion on his skin, far paler than usual, that was the other thing that was mentioned by Uxie. Based on that fact, we can produce wanted posters and have them posted right throughout the continent, though we may need Smeargle in town to produce them. We will simply state that he is a 5 star criminal - but even one of those havn't shown up in years around here, often saved only for serial killers, and those tend to be in the towns in the north, where law enforcement is minimal." Chatot said, sounding almost as determined as I was, and I now felt truly honoured to be a part of this guild, knowing when to take action and be serious.

"Considering what he's done, we should realistically add on another star, perhaps even two! Regardless, we all swore an oath of secrecy together, so not a word about the gear and the lake, not even to Smeargle! After he starts producing copies, it will be our first objective is to spread them far and wide - if someone sees him, we can hopefully start tracking him down from there on. This will leave you all about two hours - I suggest you start discussing your planned routes for this in the meantime, and get well fed. Dismissed!" Chatot finished, pacing back and forth as the duty fever started to kick in with the rest of us - this grovyle would be brought to justice by our combined efforts, and for the very first time in my life, I almost thought I'd find something worth dying over. Death was indeed inevitable, but if I could choose, I'd rather die doing something incredible over a hospital death any day.


	17. The Crusade Begins

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 17: The Crusade Begins

Chatter flowed over the guild as soon as Chatot and Wigglytuff left, and it soon became cleared that none of them signed up for something this heavy. All those dreams of becoming successful and even world famous explorers were all put on ice for now, yet thankfully, no one seemed to want to drop out - good thing too, for I'd give them some very nasty words.

"I somehow doubt this is some kind of sick joke." Serge said to me across all the loud talk.

"If it is, I'm leaving the guild and not looking back - but you're right. Chatot may be a bit of a prick, but I don't think he and Wigglytuff would scare the guild like that." I turned to look at Serge and put a hand on one of his shoulders.

"Just wanted to say this buddy - you will fight this grovyle to the bitter end if you have to with me - I hope you understand this. Also, and this isn't going to be pretty - my hatred for this grovyle might lead me to do something very, very stupid. Keep an eye on me, won't you?" Serge nodded, albeit uncomfortably, accepting it was just something that had to be done.

Thinking about the grovyle and The Time Gears again, I started to wonder where the other Time Gears were - if we knew that, we could station guild members to protect them with their life until he's caught and severely punished. I just hoped that the grovyle needed to look for them as well - if he already knew where the others were, we'd be completely screwed, to put it mildly.

"Say, Floyd." Chimeco suddenly said, floating behind me, shaking in fear of the news. "You mentioned 'your lord' earlier during your screaming session - is this someone you know from where you come from?"

"Dialga? My lord...well, like I've said to Serge, he's the grand overseer and maintainer of time itself, with many worshippers and followers where I come from, including myself." I said, not exactly expecting Chimeco to really understand, as I completely sucked at explaining such concepts, especially to a culture that has never even heard of him, or any other gods for that matter.

"Oh, is he or she nice?" She naively asked, assuming I've met him. "I hope so, since this Dialga person might help us recover his Time Gears."

"Er, actually, there is another person who follows the word of Dialga you might know. He's Dusknoir, and he's probably better explaining than I am." I replied, thinking that she might get a better answer from someone who didn't come from another dimension. "But I do know this - Dialga doesn't interfere with the worlds events, but this is a bit of a paradox - if he's not to interfere, but must retain time's stability - right now, it's one or the other for him!"

"...Curious..." She said, completely baffled at what I had told her, but to be honest, I was kind of expecting a reaction like that. "Well, I hope he helps us out, he sounds important." She said, before floating away to talk to Sunflora, and it was really hard to tell whether she just took my word for it, or was just humouring me. I guess it didn't matter either way, but I began to think deeply about what I said about Dialga to her - would he end up interfering to prevent such a catastrophe if absolutely necessary? If we fail to stop the time thief, he'd have to break one of his promises, and if such an event were to happen like that, I hope he just sorts it all out, but I fear what he'd think if he was forced to do this. He did say that achieving the following of his word without any deviations throughout an entire lifetime was pretty much impossible - I guess even my lord himself may be forced to break one of his own laws. Better with some sort of humility that he has for himself than claiming total perfection like Arceus does!

But in the end, as evil as this grovyle is, he did seem to be alone, and he would surely be stopped. There's more than ten of us in the guild and one of him, not to mention everyone in existence would be against him if and when the news got out about him. Why he was trying to cause the collapse of time, I have no idea, not that I was going to care for his nihilistic speeches that he may or may not give to us. Dialga wouldn't even have to interfere - all we'd have to do is to beat grovyle to the brink of death, take the Time Gears and put them back - simple!

"PAY ATTENTION!" Loudred suddenly yelled, pointing to the map - good for him, he seemed almost as determined as I am. "Since you've all calmed down, I'm taking charge here since NO ONE ELSE is! Our first main targets for the posters should be the four main towns on the continent, and I'll split you ALL up now!" Everyone closed in to look and listen closely, including myself, and the noise level dropped to almost zero once everyone was close, only to be broken again by Loudred's booming voice.

"Sunflora and I will go to Chaud in the west, Diglett and Dugtrio up north to Thraso Town, since you'll be best at digging under the hills, since the savage pokemon there have almost completely stopped the path-layers. Serge and Floyd, you can go to Harvest Town - it's right here, unfortunately, it's really far away, so don't be stupid and just charter a ride there on some big flying pokemon. A tropius family do flying business, you can take that and hopefully be there before dark. Matter of fact, I that can apply for everyone - hopefully the guild will use its funds to, you know, help us out over the ridiculously high tax they put on us, har har!" Barely anyone laughed at Loudred's little joke, to which he looked a little disappointed at.

"...Just trying to cheer us up...anyway, the rest just put posters around Treasure Town - we're more likely to get better help there than the other three towns, who really just like keeping to themselves. That's the general idea; now we'll just wait for Chatot and Wigglytuff to return. I just really hope this works..."

"I just thought of something - if there are Time Gears overseas, then they'll be safe as long as he doesn't get a ride across to other continents. Shouldn't we contact any pokemon who might be able to do that and make sure he doesn't leave this place?" Serge said, Loudred nodding in response.

"Exactly!" Loudred said loudly. "Another thing we should mention to Chatot and the guildmaster!" The chatting and discussing continued, with everyone involved and thinking straight perhaps out of sheer embarrassment of looking like they were panicking. Inside, I was still terrified; the sheer importance of not fucking this up was beyond any consequence that I could imagine - but all twelve members of the guild - we were trained for this. The only difference was the immense stakes.

Chatot and Wigglytuff returned soon with huge piles of wanted posters with an estimated image of the thief and all manner of contact and criminal details. They were quickly passed around to us to distribute, and I put about twenty of them in my bag.

"Loudred's given me the details of what to do - I am most impressed by your sudden leadership skills Loudred!" Chatot said, in the rare sight of him giving a compliment. Loudred looked pretty happy before returning to his position in line, not even trying to hide it with his massive mouth.

"I cannot see any major alterations that this plan needs, and the guild will fund flight travels. Normally, asking you to make your own way there would be in the spirit of exploration, but we just don't have the time, and I shall collect the funds if Wigglytuff allows it." Wigglytuff nodded, thank god for that, and while Chatot flew quickly into Wigglytuff's office to collect the funds. Wigglytuff using his vast wealth for a good cause? Makes me feel less sour about the stupid amount of money he takes from the jobs.

"I probably shouldn't need to tell you this, but this is the most important event in the guild's history. And as far as this grovyle meanie goes..." He smiled slightly, pointing to himself. "He's dealing with forty-five years of combat and exploration experience with me!" The guild suddenly erupted with applause for that little speech there, seeming to take security in the fact that Wigglytuff was planning to get his hands dirty here. Sure, age may have started to slow Wigglytuff down a bit, but I had faith that this famous explorer knew exactly how to deal with every species of pokemon in existence. But I did wonder how Wigglytuff would fight, since they weren't exactly first choice for battling back in my old world.

"Right, here are your funds." Chatot said, handing out quite a bit of money to the three pairs who were going out of town. "Team Conviction, you will receive a lot extra as you may need to stay the night at Harvest Town due to the long journey times. I'm sure the councils of the other towns won't argue with five star criminal wanted posters, but as we said earlier, he really should be put in a rank of his own. It's not our job to cause mass hysteria though, so keep in mind not to tell what his crime is - no mentioning The Time Gears, even if it's just a passing legend to most people who have heard of them!"

The enthusiasm to track and bring the grovyle to justice seemed to vary between the guild members as we set out to do our tasks. I was definitely on the zealous side of the spectrum, as my nagging thoughts about the thief never left me, and I knew there would be no rest for me until he was caught, severely punished, and have the crisis averted. On the other side were the more timid members such as Bidoof - I really don't think he's ever taken a single law enforcement task, and found the idea of going after one of this world's most evil denizens to be terrifying, or at least that's the vibe he gave off. Yet even he was still dead set in doing his part to help the guild with this all-important mission - be it bravery, good will, or outright hatred that guided us, the guild stood united. We were not alone here.

"To Harvest Town for the both of us." Serge asked one of the tropius, sitting near the east entrance to town. The tropius gazed at us with inspecting eyes, as if he was trying to judge us in some manner.

"...You both seem light, this won't be too hard - eight hundred poke from each of you then." We climbed atop his back, keeping away from his wings as he wasted no time in taking off after he accepted the payment. The views were as stunning as they were before, and there was something that really should have seemed obvious to me on the first flight I had just after the expedition, but I only noticed up until now - this wasn't a continent at all! This was an island! And not a very big one at that! I couldn't see from one side to another, but considering Harvest Town was at the other side and it was going to take only about nine hours, according to the tropius, it really had to have only been about the size of Great Britain at most.

"You're with the guild, right?" The tropius asked us about an hour into the flight, clearly getting bored of doing nothing but flying straight.

"Yes." Serge said. "Important buisness, putting up wanted posters for a highly dangerous criminal."

"I know the rumours of this place, who is he?"

"A grovyle, five star criminal. That's all we're allowed to say." I responded, keeping to the agreement I honoured.

"A serial killer I suppose? That's odd, I've never heard of anyone in these towns being murdered recently, unless you count for one of the wild ones, but they're just instinctual, which don't exactly count per se."

"It was all done last night. Eh, I spoke too much." Serge said, clearly being happier when being economical with the truth than I was.

"I bet you can't wait for the evolution spring to work again and evolve, Snivy - take a years evolution leave." I had no idea what he meant by an evolution leave, but Serge had obviously gotten to know me pretty well, as he chimed in for a non-patronising explanation.

"Yeah, gives him a chance to get used to his new body - most explorers never go at their peak performance again after an evolution until at least two years, and sometimes even up to four! It's why that some of the greatest feats of exploration were actually done by younger teenagers who've never evolved before."

"You'd never think that would you...I've heard of a few people who simply couldn't adjust well to their evolved forms and had to take up less action heavy careers. Still, not that I have to worry about it, us tropius don't evolve." He said, munching on one of the banana-like fruit on it's neck - to me, it seemed like he was eating a part of himself, and I really didn't want to look at that!

"That's why I probably should have waited until I got used to a quilava body before starting on my exploration career, but in hindsight with the evolution spring problems, I'm happy I joined when I did. Still, I can't stay a cyndaquil for too much longer, or I'm gonna look as old as you dude!" He said, smiling cheekily at me, to which I gave a laugh back. "But seriously, it's at the time of being slightly overdue for an evolution is said to be the peak for action heavy work, so we're kind of lucky in a sense. Too bad I looked way overdue for one, and at this rate, I'd look as old as my dad, and the rapid ageing still worried me a bit. I was only twenty!

"Lucky that I got used to this body quick then." I said, muttering at the end, hoping the tropius didn't overhear.

"Used to this body? Err, I don't think snivies evolve from anything, but we don't see many of them around here, so what do I know, eh?" The tropius replied, thankfully not getting the hint - I really didn't need to explain all this human buisness with the time thief on the loose stuff on my mind. "Come to think of it, I really don't like the idea of evolving - I'd miss my arms too much."

"You wouldn't reach forty if you don't - it's something you'll just have to muscle up to unfortunately." I really wasn't too concerned about this - I'd rather focus on the time problem, then I can think about evolving.

Not much more was said until we arrived, and upon reaching Harvest Town, it looked exactly what I looked like - little quaint rural town surrounded by farms, much like Kelso, where my mother used to live before moving to Edinburgh. Curiously, there was also some animal farming, looking down as we went into land - perhaps some animal slipped through to this world and got treated in the same way as they got treated in the human world. Not that I cared too much, they were tasty! It also answered my questions on how they acquired meat, but there was an uncomfortable notion that was thankfully averted. Pokemon meat was occasionally sold in the human world, but is often treated with scorn, and is rarely legal in the UK, and outright illegal in other European countries - good to see an actual civilization like this one didn't indulge in cannibalism. Much like Chaud, the town centre was a bustling market place, and ignoring all the pushy salesmen would not be an easy task, as we saw them in full force as we looked down the street at sunset, still getting in people's faces as they went home to return to their families as they weaved in and between their market stall.

"You, sandwiches! You surely must be starving!" A breloom said, running up to us, carrying a tray of most likely overpriced sandwiches. My hunger was mainly sated by the sunlight, but Serge reached forward and bought a couple and handed over the money quickly.

"Thanks." Serge said, and gave one to me. Looking at it, I decided I was hungry after all, now that the cost was reduced to nothing thanks to Serge's generosity.

"Suppose, I havn't ate since morning." I said, taking a bite. "Let's put up these posters and hope no one minds." We split up to quicken the process, hanging them up by lampposts and shop windows, receiving a mix of dirty looks and scowls. This was ignorable, but people whining in my face were not.

"From Treasure Town? Careers from violence and extortion, hmph!" One of the shopkeepers said, as I put up one of the wanted posters next to the other sales posters on his window, clearly not happy about not being able to reject the posters, since it was rated a five star criminal.

"You do realise that civilization was pretty much born there, right?" I told him, not really looking to see what he looked like. "Besides, whether you like it or not, dangerous criminals like this grovyle here need to be caught, so you can get rid of your pettiness for one damn moment, ok?"

"Well, at least you don't seem to be recruiting, so I guess I can't complain too much." The shopkeeper turned out to be a hypno, which put a lot of distrust in me, since I wasn't sure on the mysterious ways that they can be said to influence minds. "Hrm, I actually remember a grovyle like this - just as pale as on the picture, actually. A serial killer? Wish you were here four days ago, or you could have stopped him."

"Go on, please sir!" I said, turning to look at him properly. He scratched his head and collected his thoughts and went on.

"Well, he came in just to buy some food, and then asked me for a map of the area, and where any hidden lakes could be for some strange reason. Seemed like a nice enough fellow at the time, though he did not seem to be from around here - his mannerisms felt like he was further out there than Treasure Town. Then again, he is probably a psychopath, they don't function properly, you see?" He held up his silver pendant and looked at it. "Now, I've received a lot of mistrust for merely being a hypno, and it didn't help me in particular that my son went off into a life of crime. Last I heard of him was that he's in jail now, and well, he needed a good punishment really."

"Back on topic, if you don't mind, this is pretty urgent, if that doesn't make me sound impatient."

"Right, anyway, I believe it's really not ethical for me to use mind tricks against others, but if it would have driven the psychotic killer instinct out of him...nah, you can't simply cure someone of insanity like that. Besides, that's free will you're tampering with anyway - something that the three humans gave to us. When you tamper too much with the mind of someone, you might as well be killing them really." I couldn't help but nod in agreement. I'm sure Dialga might have mentioned something like that in the book, but it's not like humans are any good at forced hypnotism anyway outside of extreme torture, so it was probably a bit too specific to mention in detail.

"Anyway, after I said I didn't know, I'm sure he left and asked someone else before leaving, but I doubt he came back here. Why he was looking for hidden lakes beats me. Sorry, but that's all I know, and I can't even guarantee it's the grovyle you're looking for. I'm sure there's more than one pale grovyle out there after all."

"I couldn't thank you enough!" I said, shaking his hand then leaving quickly to put up the remaining posters and rendezvousing with Serge. It might not have been the time thief, but it was a lead I wasn't going to brush aside, this was far too valuable! A great start for the guild's mission, and I'm sure they'd make good news of the information I found. Perhaps some of the other people here could send a message to the guild revealing even more info about this bastard.

"Bad news - we were four days too late. The good news, one of the shopkeepers thinks he saw him, and they key thing he said was this - he was looking for 'hidden lakes'." Serge caught on just as quickly as I did as our trains of thought ran parallel to each other.

"Maybe that's where the other time gears could be. It's simple now! Go on a hunt for these lakes - if the thief is after more of them, then we can know where he'll be, so all we have to do is to find the other time gears and guard them. There's twelve in the guild and one of him, we'll surely find them before he does."

"Oh god, that's a relief! Even a step closer to getting him should put our name in history books if you ask me! And with posters up in the four main towns, he's not getting any more help from anyone now! I just really hope we can convince the tropius to fly us back!" That however, would prove a bit too difficult...

"As I said, I'm extremely tired, and even if you paid me triple the fares, I wouldn't do it. I'm not even sure if I could, urgent Wigglytuff Guild buisness or not! First thing tomorrow morning, no earlier!"

"FUCK!" I said, kicking a stone on the ground that ricochet off a lamppost and off the past. "You're delaying the capture of a criminal who's threat to society is beyond your imagination!" The tropius rolled his eyes, enraging me further.

"He's just a serial killer, not the harbinger of doom or whatever. Besides, making another kill with all these posters up that you mentioned were going up in the other towns would now be too risky for anyone with a single brain cell! I'll make a deal, six o'clock in the morning, two hours earlier than normal, ok? Now go away, I need my sleep!" He grumbled and walked inside his family buisness building, which had a huge door to let him through. I snarled slightly as my body heat seared before Serge intervened after the door was shut.

"Floyd, this isn't exactly helping." He said sternly as he pulled me to a quieter part of town as night started to settle in. "Maybe, though, I should have just told him the truth. He actually described the grovyle nicely, 'the harbinger of doom' if the worst comes to the worst."

"We signed an agreement, Serge, I am not going back on it. I gave them my word I wouldn't tell anyone the full story about this looming crisis, and I've weaved too many lies ever since I came here. Dialga has every right to be disgusted with me, since I've abused the 'lying loophole' of protecting myself from unfair treatment too badly."

"But given the situation, it could have been for the best just to tell."

"Good intentions as you may have, you can't exactly always predict the outcomes to all actions. Best just to follow rules - good rules, especially those taught by Dialga himself - and hope things turn out ok." This was my general view on non-Dialgans - I didn't think they were bad people, obviously - my best friend, Omar, is an atheist after all, and Serge himself was a sound fellow. Sure I think their moral efforts are often misguided or inferior to my own and other Dialgans, but they at least, for the most part, try to do the right things in my experiences, which from all walks of life I know about, tends to be the golden rule. Serge right here was a prime example of this - thinking that breaking the agreement in a chance to get back to the guild faster had a chance of paying off better for all of us, but what if the tropius still refused and started a chain reaction of panic? Not to mention dishonouring and lying to the rest of the guild. Still, at least his heart was clearly in the right place, much how I think about Omar's ethics. Speaking of which, I just hoped the fake version of me was a good enough bassist for the band!

"...Right, we should just find a place to sleep, I'm sure there's a cheap hostel somewhere in this town." I shook my head at this as another idea entered my mind.

"Serge, we should be training further into combat skills - we will likely encounter the grovyle eventually, we should aim to be as tough and badass as possible so we can take him down."

"Might not be healthy for us though to skip sleep, come on, it's not like we can leave until six in the morning anyway." I grunted slightly and turned away.

"Speak for yourself, I'll train alone then - I can't sleep or rest until we're done. Be it unhealthy or not, I really don't think I'll even be mentally or physically able to rest, even if I wanted to. Argh, if you're not coming, I'll be just outside Tropius's building at ten to six, alright?" Serge nodded, but before he set off in his own direction, he said one last thing.

"When we get back to Treasure Town, I really want you to take a sleep seed or something. Let's face it, you're not going to be able to fight well after being awake for three days straight, no matter how well you're tuned to fighting." I sighed - he was right. However, considering I don't have the means to force myself to sleep, I might as well do some night time training. I would certainly like to practice that devastating solar beam that I used to nuke the illusion groudon earlier, but without the sun out, that'd be nearly impossible. Night time always made me feel a little more run down ever since I became a snivy, but the oran berries I always keep with me always corrected that for a good hour.

I started to imagine what fighting the grovyle would be like - I didn't know that much about them from my human life, but I had an inkling it might fight quite similar to how I would fight. Sharp leaves - lots of sharp leaves - those would probably be it's weapon of choice, as it is my own. I also remembering them having deadly blades on their forearms, and on their head, which made me wonder if a bizarre form of fencing would come into play. Other abilities he might have, I had no idea, but I'd take any form of fighting ability I had and at least take that into consideration - energy draining, and vines. I didn't fear the draining abilities that the grovyle might have - I had two dangerous sharp leaves to cut him with, and two vines as well - no way he can hold them all down to drain me into unconsciousness. The big problem was this - he'd be at least a foot bigger than me, and I could imagine that he could put a lot more force behind his leaf blades than I could. Still, I had faith that Serge would back me up all the way to the end - I was not alone here.

With my large eyes placed towards the side of my head, it allowed for a far bigger scope of vision that was adjusting to the darkness perfectly - I couldn't see too well, but I could sure see better than my human self in the black of night. Perhaps if he tries to get one of the remaining Time Gears at night, it could play into my hands. I approached a couple of trees just standing next to each other rather nonchalantly - I couldn't train specifically for kicking the grovyle's ass, since I didn't know any other grovyles to practice combat with. I would have to make do with some basic agility training among those tree branches.

Sure, I could climb up the tree, but that would take too long - the time thief would be all over me and cut me to pieces if I took a slow route up! I'd have to practice faster methods. Thinking back to the incident in the plains where I almost completely fell out with Serge, I remember trying to save us by pulling us up quickly into the trees with my vines. Sure I might not be strong enough to carry Serge and I, but with just myself here, it was worth a shot. Looking up at a fairly high, but firm looking branch, I sent my vines up quickly to grab hold and successfully pulled myself up quickly - a little too quickly as I bashed my head of the branch pretty hard. After recovering from a brief spell of dizziness, I climbed onto the branch, balancing fairly easily. A start, but I'd need to do a lot better than that if I was going to reliably dodge his attacks.

The entire fare felt like some kind of rapid gymnastic rehearsal after a while, and. I was never the most agile person, but I could prove passionate about passing the obstacles. I also felt myself learning pretty damn fast as I started swinging without too much effort as the hours went on, eating an oran berry every so often. Jumping and landing firmly on the branches became more natural to me as the night started to reach it's end without incident. I got a couple of cuts and bruises down my side when I screwed up, but it was negligible in the course of the night. Combining attacks into the leaping around was my next target, though I wasn't going to have much time, as daybreak came, signalling that I had less than an hour left. My concentration was really starting to suffer by now, but not before one last little routine where I sent sharp leaves into specific points on one of the trees and diving down to cut a branch clean off the tree in record time. Not exactly first hand practice, but this was still good, allowing me to discover more about what my body was capable of.

I arrived just before Serge, who came a minute after I did, looking far fresher than I did, but that wasn't saying too much, not even Serge was used to waking up this early by the looks of things. I, however just done the most active all-nighter I've ever done in my life, and thus I didn't feel very alive at all.

"So you've kept to your word then. Floyd, you look almost unconscious buddy! Hey, you think you can sleep on Tropius's back?" I yawned slightly, hauling myself over to him and giving him the money.

"Hopefully." Exhaustion was starting to creep in, but even on the way back, I had too much crap on my mind to get to sleep properly, especially with the sun in full force again, filling me with more energy, but with skipped sleep, it felt very artificial, and didn't satisfy the physical need for it. Besides, unlike sleeping on a bus, I had to deal with the wind in my face and the prospect of falling off. Not that it would happen, but it was on my mind, alongside the whole time crisis. "Serge...you're telling the guild the story, you're better at explaining stuff than I am."

"Sure." We said and eventually landed in Treasure Town late in the afternoon. Wasting no time, we ran straight into the guild to spill the beans immediately, jumping down the stairs, which I found far easier than Serge did, in spite of feeling a bit like a zombie. Wigglytuff seemed pleased to see us, ushering us in.

"Good to see you made it back earlier than expected, we were just discussing our findings with Dusknoir here - if you remember, he was the one who found the Time Gear to be missing at the Fogbound Lake, and he offered his full time support."

"We've discovered something important, if you'd listen for a moment - we think the other Time Gears are located in 'hidden lakes.' Should mean something to you." Serge responded.

"Indeed." Dusknoir said. "They're obviously in pretty obscure locations, or else you would have found them before Grovyle ever started this crisis." He looked thoughtful for a brief moment, and suggested something. "Have you ever considered that the lakes might be underground?"

"Great, no excellent thinking!" Chatot said, jumping in the air and flapping his wings slightly before landing again, looking happier than before. "But how to find them? Maybe you were right Wigglytuff - exploration will eventually come down to caving until we can do expedition abroad...anyway, as I was muttering on there, I thought of something - if you remembered the speculated 'split river' right here." He pointed to the map using a thin stick. "We're fairly certain it flows underground, then comes out here - perhaps there's a lake the water travels through midway - that could be the location of one of them - as for the other, I'm stumped."

"We can't be sure if there's even a way in." Wigglytuff said. "That surrounding area has been surveyed, but not in good detail, and there could be some details that were missed, and the last survey was months ago. The quickest way would be across the desert to the north of us, which is extremely hot and dry as you might guess - it's a wonder that river even exists. In regards to the desert, it's extremely hostile to outsiders in both the environment and savage pokemon, who will likely try to kill you on sight."

"I wouldn't normally ask you to go anywhere near there." He said, sounding stressed. "Of course, we are used to do dangerous work, but this will require special preparations, and I will only send some of you, while the rest will help track down the remaining Time Gear. Dusknoir, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like you to take charge in trying to find the last Time Gear with, let's see...Loudred, Bidoof, Croagunk, Corphish and Chimeco. The rest of you are coming with Chatot and I to the desert to try and find a way in. Sorry, but...I, I feel terrible asking you to come on such a dangerous part of this continent, but you know the stakes. I will arrange preparations to leave tomorrow at five in the afternoon - just to try and keep the heat from slowing us down."

"He might already be on the way there!" I said, being fearful and impatient. "We should make preparations and head out now!"

"Floyd, grovyles are sensitive to heat and moisture, it's unlikely he'd attempt to go there during the daytime." Chatot said, pacing around slightly in front of the five selected to go to the desert. "Besides, unless the necessary preparations and precautions are made, we might not be able to reach the lake, if it's even there, at all!"

"Sunflora, I've picked you for a special purpose - we will likely reach where the river goes underground at dawn - we may need you to blast some rocks with your solar beam technique, which should be easy for you in the intense sunlight." Wigglytuff said.

"I can do that as well!" I said, standing proudly.

"Even better! It will also be a very good weapons against those that might attack us there, but don't count on it in the cave. Chatot will be giving you information on how to best go on explorations in a desert, dos and don'ts and more. I just hope you're prepared to carry a lot of water with you - several bottles each!" Wigglytuff said. "Diglett and Dugtrio, we will need you to dig to look for a possible way in for us - if you dig deep enough, you can probably avoid the burning feeling." They both nodded quickly.

"There will be no sleep for you tomorrow night - unlike the expedition to Fogbound Lake, this is extremely time sensitive." Chatot said, causing me to pipe up again.

"Then why are we not getting ready to go NOW?! If the grovyle is looking for them, he could be preparing to cross the desert as we speak! Can we not just use the next hour or two to make the preparations and just up and go?!" I said, almost screaming as my voice was growing hoarse again, breathing heavily, looking at everyone around me.

"He's right." Dusknoir said. "I have obviously been one to advocate preparing and preparing twice, but the stakes are simply too high - leaving it until tomorrow will only increase Grovyle's chances of getting away with the Time Gear without incident. You really want to be ready to intercept him as soon as possible, that is, unless he's already found it."

"He has a point, Wigglytuff." Chatot said, clearly admiring Dusknoir. "I mean, Floyd there looks like he had had no sleep, but - let's face it, if we don't go today, he'll pull some stupid shit and jeopardize our mission."

"Giving into indirect threats Chatot?" Wigglytuff said with the faintest of grins on his face. "That's most unlike you! Ok, it's settled, Chatot will brief you on desert safety while I go collecting supplies for each of us." He said before rapidly climbing up the ladder and into town.

"Alright then, to remove one thing from our mind, none of you will be navigating in the desert, so you don't need to worry about that, so take it off your minds, for you will need to focus on other things. Second, for the journey there and up until tomorrow morning, we may need support from you, Serge, to create torches and a fire."

"But surely it's hot in the desert, surely a fire would be the last thing on your mind, right?" Serge asked, which further cemented that this civilization was indeed young and naive, on top of what I can gather is a fairly small island, which seems to them to be a vast continent! Even taking a glance at the map, the desert didn't seem bigger than twenty miles wide!

"We havn't discovered the reasons yet, but the desert actually gets pretty cold during the night time."

"It's because there are barely any clouds there - they keep the heat in, but since there are none, a lot of the heat escapes at night time." I said smugly. "Continue..."

"Er...yes, now bear in mind, we are expected to reach our destination by sunrise tomorrow, so it will start getting very hot from there. I will expect you to ration your water accordingly, as we may be walking back to Treasure Town in the heat of the day. The key to rationing water well, is actually rationing sweat, or whatever the equivalent of you, rest in the shade when you can." Chatot said to the others, which while it might have seemed common sense to me, the others probably knew next to nothing about deserts. To be fair, I didn't know that much deserts either - the nearest desert was a long, long way away from Scotland!

"Dangerous pokemon we might encounter, lets see...drapions, flygons, aggrons, all kinds of 'ons', haha...er...oh, and tyranitars - we may want to just try and avoid them." Chatot sighed for a moment. "Just trying to keep spirits up - and don't forget about hippowdons, ehehe! As you may have guessed, they will be used to the land themselves, but in particularly hostile locations such as deserts, they will probably not be held back by the conditions as we will be. It's even been rumoured that they can dig up sandstorms by themselves, so I think we will be aiming to apply avoidance if possible - besides, we need to save our energy to catch and apprehend the grovyle if we see him. I have listed the most dangerous pokemon that we are likely to encounter, anything else will be considerably lesser threats."

He started briefing us over on how to deal with each of the big threats we could encounter, and it became apparent that Serge and I would be a little screwed here - he muttered to me how blowing sands would dampen his fiery abilities, and how I would probably need copious amounts of water to get through. Still, even as Chatot talked onwards, my mind drifted towards the prospect of fighting the time thief, as I became completely fixated on bringing him down. I had never met him, and although I've only heard of him very recently, he, by far, was my most hated lump of cells that has ever existed.

"I'm back!" Wigglytuff said, jumping down the stairs, making a big thud noise as he landed, carrying more than I thought he could - his bag had to be at least three times the size of him!

"See, Floyd? Wigglytuff does have great strength and power, he's not a 'clown' at all!" Sunflora told me, pointing to his bag, which he dumped on the floor and started taking out supplies.

"I had already gathered that you know."

"You've never actually seen him in combat, have you - it's almost scary to watch! Yet completely amazing! You seem really determined, more so than the rest of us." She replied as I looked around briefly: Dugtrio was giving Diglett some pep talk to get him involved, since he seemed really scared, while Serge was just sitting down, looking like he was focusing on our mission ahead of us. The rest of them were discussing things I couldn't quite hear with Dusknoir, but it was a good decision that we were split into two like this. I really wanted to grab a quick word with Dusknoir though before we left, for religious matters involving the Time Gears. Soon our bags were filled to the brim with food, water, and other supplies, and as we all had dinner together before setting out, I did manage to catch Dusknoir.

"I've er...never felt such an important cause before. Can't believe the timing and circumstance of, well, what happened to me. Still, it boggles the mind why someone would even do this - surely they'll screw themselves over as well by doing this!" I said, not speaking too loudly since I'd rather not have others overhear.

"There are, sadly, and ever so rarely, the occasional person who'd want to see it all end, but Grovyle was the only one to my knowledge that has ever tried to make it happen. I don't know what his motives are, but it matters not - not in extreme cases such as this."

"I was actually wondering; should we fail, will Dialga intervene himself to preserve the proper flow of time? I mean, all we can do is speculate I guess. Still, I hope your convictions are as strong as mine, and I won't lie - I'd be very tempted to kill this grovyle on sight if Dialga didn't explicitly forbid killing humans and pokemon."

"The fact that you're choosing not to give into primal urges and choosing to act on your proper, thought out will and handed down morality shows that you are certainly devout - it's a shame that I have found it impossible to spread the word to the other pokemon here. As for Dialga intervening, perhaps only as a last resort, or at least that is what I would imagine. Uxie did tell me that he was making some repairs to Temporal Tower, which were normal and routine every decade or thereabouts, and sends the Time Gears to Uxie and two others to protect, which I am guessing could be Azelf and Mespirit. But for Grovyle to get by Uxie's defences as easily as he described...I shouldn't need to warn you dangerous he must be. I have come up with some ideas of where the other Time Gear might be, but I will likely need more time to research it with the other guild members - we should feel lucky that we have a skilled group of explorers to keep Dialga's will in place here." It was nearly time for me to go, but Dusknoir gave some encouraging words to me as we left. "I would say 'may Dialga's will be on your side', but that would simply be too obvious now, wouldn't it. This could be the highest conceivable service we are making to Dialga outside of the work of his prophet, Ivan Nazar! Let's make this happen, together!"

"Indeed! Good luck!" I said and left him to do his part while I turned off to do mine. All of the bags were finished packing as we were marched out of town. Wigglytuff's presence seemed to be a beacon of hope for everyone else coming as we walked fairly lock-step behind him on the flattened path as the sun dipped past the hills behind us. Tiredness wasn't phasing me much right now, determination carrying out the will of my body over it's screams and protests for rest. Gasping for air, I trekked towards the back of the pack as night fell upon us eventually, as the firm path gave way to smooth sand and rock, and within my sleep deprived mind, I began to wonder - was my appearance in the pokemon world and the time crisis connected?


	18. We Earnest Soldiers

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 18: We Earnest Soldiers

Exhaustion and sleep-deprivation were no obstacle against my unbreakable will to find and bring justice to Grovyle. The desert heat was draining rapidly, giving way to bitterly cold blasts of wind from behind, the sand being driven airborne and tickling the entire group from behind. The vast flat sands were getting harder and harder to see in the encroaching darkness as night truly fell on the land and the fellow defenders of justice I was accompanying. We became solely reliant on our leader's navigational skills, who kept boldly walking in a very straight line in front of us, keeping us moving at a quick pace.

"Serge, we may need you to light a few torches." Chatot said, producing a few from his bag. "The guildmaster says that the land gets a little treacherous ahead, we need to watch where we walk."

"Right." Serge said simply, breathing fire on one of them and passing it to Wigglytuff, which was oddly enough the only one he wanted – looks like we weren't having any of them.

"I'll be covering this with my body to shelter it from the wind, and if you see or feel any odd rustling in the sand, move quickly towards the front. Skorupi stings can be very dangerous, and I am not having any of you collapse of weakness on this mission, understood?" Wigglytuff asked us, with very little of his usual overly jolly self in tact, still having the stern, yet caring attitude in tact. Good to see such an influential and powerful man take this heaviest of responsibilities of leading the capture of quite possibly the most dangerous person alive this seriously.

"Thank fuck the wind's coming from behind..." I muttered at the idea of sand being blown into my eyes and mouth, keeping my pace brisk, refusing to lose concentration at the task at hand. Wigglytuff's warning about the skorupi in the sand made this far less comfortable than I had hoped, paranoia setting in, constantly glancing at my feet, focusing in on what little torchlight we had. Serge at the back lit the area around him with the flames on his back, which made me feel just a little bit better. Suddenly, something shot out of the sand just to my right, just about scaring the living daylights out of me, given how sensitive I was to sudden movements right now.

"Sorry!" It was just Diglett thankfully, and it was strange seeing someone who was barely a teenager chip in so directly to this mission. "I got worried about what could be in these sands."

"You live underground, you're all about being underground. You'll be fine, really, and don't scare me like that again!" I said sternly to him, and saw him shoot underground, presumably to join his three-headed-father. It was impossible to tell how isolated we were in this dark desert, not being able to see for more than about fifteen meters ahead of us, and while I honestly never felt in real danger, Sunflora thought otherwise.

"...Sorry Floyd, I just get stressed when there's not this much moisture and I have to walk for so long!"

"Calm yourself and keep up! The more energy spent complaining, the less for finding Grovyle!" Chatot retorted back at her, being somewhat hypocritical in that regard, but then again, it's Chatot we're talking about here. The next two hours were pretty uneventful, with spikes of tiredness starting to hinder me, but came nowhere near to stopping me, but clearly being awake for over forty hours was starting to take its toll on me, as I wavered very slightly as I walked behind Chatot, who was scouting ahead every now and then. Wigglytuff however, very suddenly came to a standstill and signalled the rest of us to stand behind him, and he looked slightly concerned, but more amused than anything else.

"Oh I can see you, now you can both clear off, or you'll be struggling to walk for the next few hours. An easy choice if you ask me!" He called out to two very large shadows in the drifting sands who moved towards us ominously, and had to be at least three times the size of Wigglytuff. They growled menacingly, but in spite of the avoidance policy that was instated earlier, he now seemed to think the quickest way past these intimidating looking beings was to go right through them. "Chatot, deal with the one in the front, I'll take out the one behind it, and save our guild member's energy, shall we?"

"Of course guildmaster! I don't see this being much of an issue..." He said, staring at the two tyranitars who clearly thought we looked lost and very delicious. Unfortunately for them, even if the previous statements were true, we were as far from easy prey as you could get. Wigglytuff bounded surprisingly quickly into the increasing sandstorm to deal with the second tyranitar as he vanished from sight in the sands and darkness while Chatot looked confidently at the one staring down at him. And it was at this point where I decided to keep my antagonizing of Chatot to myself.

"No being reasonable? Fine, have it your way mister!" He said and did something extremely unexpected and shot a very cold pale blue beam out of his beak, very similar to the one that walrien attempted to use on me back at the expedition for that matter, right into it's mouth as it tried to deliver a lethal bite, but only ended up getting most of his mouth frozen solid and covered in ice. Yep, I'm definitely not going to tell Chatot to piss off again!

"These people here are your superiors in the ways of life, not your food!" He called as he took off the ground, avoiding a rage induced blow from the beast, looking furious from being unable to roar or bite Chatot in half, but it still looked quite the determined tank. It'd take a lot more than that for Chatot to take it down, but it seems like he already had it covered as he took a dive bomb right towards it at drastic speeds. A fairly small bird trying to bash into a huge rock dinosaur thing? This I had to see!

"Cover your ears people!" All, including me, obeyed his command and I braced for an extremely loud shriek that took place right in front of the now-rather helpless looking tyranitar, who looked like he just suffered having his eardrums burst. And after all that, he struggled to make much of a noise from his mouthful of frozen ice, as he almost fell completely over in agony and disorientation, allowing Chatot to dive in from behind. His right wing did something very strange here and it seemed to become far stiffer and shinier than before and using all the speed he could muster, slammed it right into the back of the tyranitar's head with a very loud clunk, sending it flat on its face, completely out cold.

"Chatot, that took you an entire minute, we don't have all day!" Wigglytuff said, already having dealt with his opponent as he bounded towards the rest of us, chuckling slightly. "You can show off your thirty years of experience later, come on, let's keep moving!"

"Ehehe, Wigglytuff, they are highly resilient." He said, flying alongside him as the little event ended very quickly. Seeing Chatot fight so confidently with such experience was an awe to watch, as surely those two could beat up Grovyle until he is permanently crippled, especially how Wigglytuff must have made far shorter work of such a huge and sturdy assailant. However, they were just instinctual idiots, and I had assumed that Grovyle was still highly dangerous in combat given how we knew that both the Groudon illusions and Uxie apparently didn't put up much of a fight at all against him.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, aside from the paranoia of skorupi in the sands, making my feet suddenly jump at any signs of movement. Thankfully, Dugtrio and his son were kind enough to dig fairly deep underground to avoid scaring me, considering that I was really starting to feel on edge, eating about three oran berries, more than what was healthy. My strained heart kept going, not liking the overdose, but I needed to stay alert, no matter what the cost. The terrain began to become a little rocky as the sand started giving way, but it was still extremely dry and rather cold, as I stayed close to Serge for the comfort of light and heat as I started gasping for breath occasionally, the lack of sleep really getting to me now.

"Oof, I'm sleepy..." Serge said, rubbing his head, making me realise that perhaps influencing everyone to skip sleep and go straight to it might not have been the best idea, but Chatot and Wigglytuff, our pillars of strength, seemed absolutely fine, and if we find the time gear first, we can always camp there and guard it.

"Look who's talking." I said, looking at Serge who clearly looked concerned at my obviously red eyes.

"Well, er...perhaps the sunlight will perk you up a bit when it comes round." By now, it had become extremely rocky, and our pace quickened slightly, having more grip than the smooth sands. By now, I could see a little better in the never ending blackness, be it because morning was coming or my eyes had just become that used to it, who knew. Drinking some water to keep my hydrated and awake, I soon heard the sound of water from another source, and it's gentle babbling told me that it was the river that they were looking for. Our leaders seemed to realise that too, and quickly picked up the pace to a run as we did our best to keep up.

"It's the river all right." Chatot said, as everyone gathered round, looking and waiting for what was to be told next. "Morning will come very soon, good to see you're all awake, and we shall be walking by the bank, and I expect all of you to observe this river closely, perhaps notice anything unusual, clues that might..." However, he was interrupted suddenly by a fairly happy looking Wigglytuff.

"I knew that survey team wasn't very good! Look! It stars flowing underneath that outcrop there!" He said, pointing, his sight in the darkness obviously superior to everyone else's. "Grovyle won't wait for us, let's see if there's a way in." He said, bounding away from us quickly, everyone running to keep up, Chatot aside.

"See?" He said, pointing once we got outside, and he was right – the subterranean part of this river was right there, but there was no obvious way of getting underground aside from taking an incredibly risky dive into the small excuse for a river, not knowing if the rocks would rend our flesh to pieces or not.

"Stay back, I see unusual tracks." Chatot said, flapping his wings rather violently in front of us as he flew over a small area in a circle a few times before arriving at his conclusion. "It's a Grovyle alright, we may already be too late." He fearfully said, shaking slightly. "The tracks end here, he must have dived into the river, and as nasty as this sounds...I hope he didn't make it." No one questioned how he wished death on someone, not even I, in spite of my beliefs.

"How can we be sure though, maybe we just missed him. There may be a chance for us to stop him, he might have gotten lost looking for the Time Gear, maybe we can still find it before him!" I said, trying to rally up the hero in all of us currently present, and although I wasn't turned down per se, they seemed to be far less gun-ho than I was about this.

"None of us here are great swimmers aside from Wigglytuff, but whether he'd fit in that small opening...no offence guildmaster. Although it might be possible if you can blast a bit of the outcropping with the power of the sun, Sunflora. Think you can generate enough energy with it just peeking over the horizon?" He said, gesturing to the morning sun slowly rising.

"That might take a few minutes, but what if it's too long, oh my gosh no!" She said, panicking slight with Wigglytuff immediately moving to try and calm and motivate her to focus as much as she could.

"Excuse me guildmaster, but digging a tunnel for you and the others will be out of the question, as it will probably take hours. My son and I can however enter the underground cave ourselves and search for the Time Gear." Dugtrio said, suddenly popping up from the ground, breaking the rocky surface.

"...We don't have much choice, do it. Hopefully we'll meet you inside, just try not to get hurt." Wigglytuff said after a delay before returning to his thinking about how best to get in. My patience was ending – with Grovyle having potentially closed in on the Time Gear, risks to our selves was quite frankly not an issue compared to preventing the highest degree of sacrilege! Sure Wigglytuff was a bit too big to currently fit through that tiny hole where the river flowed into, but I sure wasn't!

"Aw for fuck sake, I'm going in! See you in there, because I'll probably need backup! Sayonara!" I said hotly as I rather recklessly jumped into the river, with Serge and Wigglytuff calling my name, but failing to stop my recklessness as I landed in the water and was immediately swept inside, crudely bashing against the rocks from all four sides, feeling it graze my skin in several places before I managed to hold onto a ledge and haul myself out. It could have ended far worse for me, I was still in one piece, even though I was bleeding on my left leg and a couple of other places. Damn, I was getting pretty touch to stand up after that.

Looking around, it seemed like some of the sand also leaked in here, leading me to believe that the desert on the other side of the river became very sandy again, but other than that, it was probably the drabbest and unassuming cave their was if you took away the small river that kept flowing gently beside me as I slowly stood up to inspect its rather small chamber size. It made me feel less confident about how effective Chatot and Wigglytuff would be here – almost no room to fly, and Wigglytuff would have to duck quite a lot, which would be no good if we encounter Grovyle. Speaking of which, I did find something of great interest and importance about this cave after a closer inspection – tiny drops of blood on the sandy rock floor that most certainly didn't belong to me. It had to have been him, and it seems like he was fairly hurt – all the easier to allow justice to catch up with this fiend!

"Going alone?" A very familiar voice said from behind me, gasping for breath. Serge had dived through water and rock to come and assist me, two things he never felt too comfortable around. What a guy! "I did agree to come with you 'to the bitter end', and to prevent you from doing something completely reckless."

"You don't seem hurt...but Grovyle is, he seemed to be shimmying along the edge of the small river, really tight squeeze though, try not to fall in and make it harder for yourself, right buddy?" I said, leading him along as we clung to the wall as we slowly moved deeper into the cave, being careful not to fall into the more violent waters, where being carried into the sharp rocks could very well tear us apart. Concentration was extremely difficult to maintain with the extreme tiredness and my fixation on Grovyle, not to mention my desire to see him writhe in agony.

"I saw something! A flash of green." He said from behind, keeping his voice down to hopefully avoid alerting Grovyle, who might be able to hear our chatter if he was near. "We could be just behind him." Not that staying quiet mattered though, since we heard a loud blast of stone being pulled apart, Sunflora finally being able to blast a hole big enough for everyone to fit though. Back up was there, but we still might be too late if we didn't keep moving, and the underground lake which we were searching for could be right ahead with the Time Gear, and I had no idea how well protected it was.

"Don't ask me to restrain myself when we beat him down Serge, I want to make him suffer horribly for this before we turn him in. Defiling the lord's property like this..." Serge grunted in concern before the cave seemed to split in two directions, with water only heading down one of them, my vision becoming a tad blurry now, my energy reserves starting to run low, and it seems that not even my zeal and ambition would keep me fighting fit for much longer. We had to do this quickly, but that zeal and ambition would spike and give me an extreme second wind when a figure was seen, navigating down the river, jumping carefully from the walls and rocks.

He was almost a foot bigger than me, with a very similar colour scheme, and also had very vicious looking leaves, looking quite pale as if he didn't get much sun. Heavily scarred as well, and not the sort I would trust on a first appearance, and while this was the first time I had ever seen him, I knew all I needed to know. Grovyle, quite possibly the world's most evil person in my eyes, moving away from us without us even knowing we were there. Hatred and malice oozed from my mind to give my body the strength and energy needed to maim him, and yet, Serge held me back as I had to struggle from lashing out at him as I gritted my teeth in disdain, struggling to avoid acting on instinct.

"He's moving far faster than us, and that other way also seems to lead deeper down – maybe we can cut him of there." Good guy Serge, stopping me from likely taking a futile lunge at him which could have possibly resulted in my death. I clearly wasn't much good without him, as we both ran down the rather empty tunnel, keeping our footsteps light, but keeping my rage-fuelled breathing under control was a bit too difficult to manage. Never the less, after hurtling ourselves deeper down, the sound of flowing water returned as we bore witness to the cave opening up tremendously as the entire cave lit up slightly with a majestic glow from strange fungi that took their home on the cave walls all around. But what glowed the most, the thing that sent my heart racing, was of course, the Time Gear resting in the lake. And better yet, we had obviously beaten Grovyle to the lake! We can make out stand here, and we could even see where he'd be leaving from – the now rather violent flow of the river, flowing into the lake to our left.

"I suggest we ambush the living fuck out of him." I whispered, moving very silently towards the opening, and this all seemed to work well, but as I would soon discover, there'd be a spanner in the works.

"Wait...you! I will not let you take the Time Gear!" An angry feminine voice announced, coming from the lake itself. I looked around drastically, thinking she was speaking to Grovyle, whoever she was, and that he must be in this great natural hall somewhere, and I missed my spot check on him. But he was certainly nowhere to be found as an entity, similar to Uxie, hovered out of the water. It seemed very similar to Uxie in a lot of ways, yet appeared far more feminine while still retaining the ruby-like embedded sphere on it's for head with it's two tails that also sported smaller versions of these embedded spheres. The main difference is that it's eyes were wide open, and didn't look like it was asleep the whole time, giving us both highly accusing looks.

"Exactly, Grovyle, the one after the Time Gear, will be here any moment, right from that passageway with the river flowing out of it, Mesprit, I assume." I admit that the novelty of seeing such legendary entities has been kind of dwarfed ever since encountering an outright deity in it's own right, Giratina. Unfortunately, Mesprit, the being that granted humankind the ability to feel emotions, did something extremely stupid that not even Serge could stop as I was interrupted before I could finish.

"Uxie had warned us of the collaboration to end time! I was told it would be inevitable that someone would try to take the Time Gears, but your plan of keeping the heat on Grovyle while you searched for the location of the Time Gears has failed!" Unlike Uxie, she seemed to be almost boiling with rage, and looked ready to attack, and I really didn't know what she was capable of.

"What the fuck are you on about!? We're here to protect it alongside you, Grovyle will be here at any moment and he made very quick work of Uxie! Now help us to bring Grovyle to..." I was however cut off by a terrified scream for Serge, who's constant screaming and heavy breathing complimented his shivering body, and looked like he had found quite possibly the darkest fear known to man. I was helpless to help bring him to his senses as Mesprit stared right at poor Serge. Of course it was her, assuming direct control of his emotions! Sadistic, stupid bitch!

"Get off my friend!" I said, charging right at her, aiming to try and knock some sense into her before it was too late. She turned to look right at me and I knew what she was going to try and do as I spun around, sending many sharp leaves from me tail to break her concentration. It worked to, as she briefly yelled out in stinging pain. Serge was still a nervous wreck, and soon, so would I.

Grovyle had clearly saw this as an opening, and as I glanced round, I saw the worst of the worst. He leaped what must have been several feel in the air with a strange green ball of energy in his hands that he threw with great force at Mesprit, barely making a sound. The resulting explosion nearby almost knocked me off balance, but Mesprit on the other hand was sent several feet across the cave, slamming into one of the walls. I now knew what had to be done as I charged right at Grovyle, hopefully trying to catch him off guard after what looked like a very powerful technique.

"Fool..." I heard the Grovyle mutter, not being sure who he was really talking to as he seemed to rather casually jump over me, but I wasn't going to let that slide so easily. I tried to screw his jump up by using my vines to grab hold of one of his legs and yank him down, and it actually worked, as he face-planted into the ground with an audible thud and a grunt, and the sheer act of seeing his face become grazed slightly was an absolute joy. I let out a warrior's cry as I made a small jump to allow gravity to make my cutting tail leaf even more dangerous, but Grovyle recovered so fast it was unreal, especially for how injured he looked! He blocked my sharp lead with his own on his right forearm, and while he recoiled slightly from the strength needed to parry my attack, he very quickly attacked with his leaves on his left arm right across my torso as I discovered how sharp and painful pokemon leaves could really be.

"Gaah! I'm...not letting you have it! Justice will come Grovyle!" I said, getting up slowly, only to be completely rushed by another wickedly fast bladed leaf, leaving quite the red line on me, drawing a fair bit of blood, my exhausted and battered state refusing to continue fighting anymore as I fell backwards.

"I suggest you stay out of my way from now on, or there will be harsher consequences. I should have known Dusknoir would have tried to recruit lapdogs to assist him..." As he turned to walk away to look at the shimmering Time Gear in the lake. "Only one more after this..."

"I can say the same for you..." I retorted, with a voice that just about distorted with sheer anger as I was pretty much crippled right now. "Dialga's sovereign righteousness will find a way, be it by my hand, or Dusknoir's or anyone else! You're days as a free man are numbered...and...you had better hope it's not me that stops you when we undoubtedly meet again!" He gave a very slightly perplexed look, now showing much emotion as he dived into the lake, going straight for the Time Gear. How could this be? If only we were just a few minutes earlier...if only if Mesprit wasn't such a spastic...

I had no idea if Mesprit was currently using the powers of emotion to make me feel shit in every conceivable way, but she might as well as I saw Grovyle get himself a second Time Gear from the lake bed. I managed to force to me feet and ignored the pain as much as possible, but a few steps towards trying to stop him and I fell to my hands and knees again when my left leg gave way. My body was simply under too much exhaustion, pain and body damage as it betrayed my will and refused to give chase.

"I'LL MAIM YOU GROVYLE! I'LL FUCKING MAIM YOU!" I screamed at him so loudly that I could feel my throat join other parts of my body in pain and injure as I held tightly where I was viciously cut twice across my torso, preventing any more blood from leaking. Grovyle looked exhausted, but he still made his escape by following the continuing river flow at the other side of the lake and was soon out of sight. Come on guild, I wish you were here now!

"We were mistaken..." I heard Mesprit to the left say as she got up from the highly precise and dangerous attack, and the shivering wreck that was Serge behind me soon returned to normal, and was the only one of the three who was fairly unharmed.

"Floyd! Oh, sorry, I was suddenly terrified for my life and I was sure for some reason I was going to be horribly tortured!" He said, helping me to my feet again, holding me up there until I could find my footing. I figured that it was Mesprit that made him think this, and boy was I furious at her! If Serge was in fighting spirits back there we could have brought an end to Grovyle's actions, but no – misguided distrust was apparently more important to her.

"Mesprit...you fucking retard! Now look what you've done! Thanks to your...absolute...brain-dead...ugh, words can't even describe it! For having lived as long as mankind itself, you are so, so inept! Did it not occur to you that the fogbound lake wasn't really massively hidden? Hard to find, yes, but so hard you assumed it was part of a ruse with that bastard?!" Apparently, my throat was the only part of my body that was still excreting energy, but even that would fail as my voice grew faint.

"Floyd, it isn't helping." Serge said, keeping me supported.

"You're sounding awful calm about this!" I snarled back at him, gasping for breath. "You betrayed Dialga's trust Mesprit!"

"It isn't her fault that Grovyle's doing this! Quit being so angry at her, try to calm yourself – and then we can perhaps think about the next move for the guild after the others catch up."

"Quit being angry? She gave me the capacity to be angry, and now, the situation! Good sir, NOT feeling angry is morally outrageous!"

"As I was saying, we were mistaken. I see no lies in you now, especially the way how you tried your best to stop Grovyle. I have failed in my duties as a temporary guardian of this Time Gear not through simply being unable to stop him like Uxie, but through our own bad snap decisions. Uxie and I give you are most grave apologies for ever suspecting you, and we may all pay an immeasurable price for this. However, we are not doomed to the fate of living in a timeless, broken world, for as he said, he is after the only remaining Time Gear not in his possession." Mesprit seemed to pause for a bit as sounds were being made from behind – the rest of the guild must be finally catching up.

"The others are with us, and you see Floyd? There'll be another chance to stop him." Serge said, hearing the others come closer. His words of encouragement were friendly enough, but it was quickly replaced be a feeling of deadness in the air and vicinity, and by the looks of it, Serge felt it as well. The air wasn't exactly blowing around before, but now, it was an unnatural stillness all around that I had never experienced before, and that only the three of us were having any effect on the environment around us.

More chilling still was gazing at the water to give a true impression of the dead feel of this place right now. Not ripping at all, yet it seemed to disobey the rules of gravity, as some of the water seemed to have froze in mid ripple, and I could see this deathly environment expand slowly to where the water was flowing into the lake, and then it all made perfect sense. In a way, time had stopped here, yet I could still move just fine, so maybe it hadn't – I had no idea, but to test my curiosity, I reached forward and touched the water – it rippled for a few seconds before freezing in place, and much like the air around us, it felt like it had died, or what death would be like for a non living thing. 'Death' was the only world I could think to describe this feeling around us, and I even remembered from the vision that Wigglytuff and Chatot describing what Fogbound Lake felt like after the Time Gear from there was stolen.

"I can tell you where the last Time Gear is. Through telepathy, I have already warned my younger brother, Azelf, who will be making as many preparations as possible to defend the Time Gear. I advise that you do not enter the lake vicinity, as he will have likely sealed it off as much as possible, and while it might not hold him off forever, it will hopefully give you...and your friends..." She said, noticing the rest finally arrive, stumbling in slightly, seeing as they may have had to blast their way through the narrower sections of the tunnels. "...Time to catch him and return the Time Gears safely. Uxie and I will now plan to assist you in whatever way we can – there's no point in us staying here anymore. And remember, if you can feel this stillness – it will only get far worse if Grovyle succeeds in tampering with the Time Gears as he is attempting to do now."

"Never say too late!" Chatot said and flew very quickly across the lake, clearly trying to give chase to Grovyle and attempt to try and give chase through the tunnels ahead where the river continued to flow past it's lake top. If anyone could catch him now, it'd be him, and I sure hope he brutalizes him good, as I was in currently no state to do so, still gasping for breath and unconsciousness seemed to creep up on me now and then.

"Should he fail, I can transport you near to Azelf's lake, for he has also set up a field that will block beings attempting to teleport in, in case they can do that, though it will require them to know what the lake looks like. I should expect Azelf to be able to keep Grovyle away alone, but we'll need people who can get him and bring the Time Gears back, or it'll only slowly get worse from here." She instructed, and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"Some of my friends are probably incapable of doing so without rest, Floyd here in particular, and we have no camping equipment. It'll be worth the gamble to send them home to recover and meet us there later – if Chatot's dead set on getting the last time gear and Azelf can guard as well as you say you can, this should work." Wigglytuff said, sounding almost cheery, perhaps because he thought he came up with a convincing plan. As much as I abhorred the idea of resting right now, I ultimately knew deep down that he was right. I was in no state to fight, I could barely stay awake and stand straight in spite of my raging emotions, and I guess I really just had to have faith in Azelf, Wigglytuff and Chatot, even though I didn't think Azelf would be as good as Mesprit says he is. Uxie apparently couldn't do much, and Mesprit ended up being counterproductive, the useless bitch, but it was all I had to go on.

"Sorry...he caused a cave in and blocked me off." Chatot said, flying back a lot slower, gasping for breath. "I don't know how he sets them off with such precision!" Wigglytuff quickly explained the situation and Chatot nodded in agreement. "Right, it's settled, meet up with Dusknoir and the others back at HQ, and join us when you're ready. I think I might know where she means, but I would have never guessed there'd be some kind of hidden lake there! Let's not waste any time then, teleport us when you're ready."

"As you wish." She said, and we all remained very still and glowed slightly, and nothing seemed to happen for quite a few minutes, but eventually, we glowed as well as the environment became very fuzzy before we suddenly found ourselves in the guild building.

"I sure wish I knew how to relax..." I muttered, almost making a dive for my bed, which felt really comfy for a pile of straw by now. "Even though I'm ready to pass out, I'm not sure if I can rest." I looked at Serge, who lay down slowly on his own bed." Serge gave me and odd smile at this point, seeing his teeth ever so slightly.

"Remember, the more rest you get, the better you can fight against Grovyle." It was really obvious, but a sound statement nonetheless. Too bad sleep wasn't exactly something your could pour burning effort into.

"Just...goodnight." I said and it felt like I passed out more than falling asleep naturally, but never the less, it was sleep anyway. Needless to may, my dreams were significantly more active than before as I stood above Grovyle, looking like he was severely roughed up, and while at the time, I suspected this was a dream, it was too good not to enjoy.

"It's over Grovyle!" I said with almost sadistic glee as I picked up a small crowbar that just happened to be lying there as I approached him, which seemed fashioned for snivy hands. "I don't know why you saw fit to try and bring time to a collapse, not that it matters. Defiling my lords property and trying to bring about this calamity deserves this due punishment!" I said as I started breaking his bones with audible crunching noises as I screamed with glee at each heavy swing, only made more satisfying by Grovyle's screams of agony and fear as the due punishment was brought upon him, not to mention I'd likely soon be regarded as this world's greatest hero, and for good reason! Sadly, it was indeed a dream as I was soon woken up by Serge.

"Floyd, Dusknoir's requested the entire town's presence at the town square! It's something big for sure!" I don't see how it could be as big as dealing with Grovyle, but no doubt I felt very well refreshed with my injuries pretty much cleared up. Nevertheless, I followed him out alongside the rest of the guild at a brisk jog, seeing the nervous chatter among the townsfolk, mutterings included 'it can't be true, can it?', and I knew then that it likely wasn't good. Magnezone was standing by Dusknoir's side, trying to keep everyone's attention on Dusknoir so he can make his speech.

"Citizens of Treasure Town, I bring grave news, and I shall not beat around the bush. Time itself is threatened!" Dusknoir suddenly announced, but instead of panic, the townsfolk were just met with confusion. Pretty much the reaction you'd expect when some doomsday announcement is made really, but nevertheless, he went on.

"I was hoping to keep this quiet to avoid panic, but I may need help from every one of you to help bring the most dangerous criminal to have ever existed to justice. Sunflora has reported that now two of the three Time Gears are in his possession and that he aims to obtain the final one to bring the collapse of time itself. Should he succeed, expect no light to come from the star above us, and that is only the start. The day will never come, the seasons will never come, the wind will never blow, and while you are all sure of your resolve now, many of yours will falter to the never-ending darkness, and lawlessness and insanity will sweep the land. The world as we know it would be in total ruin, no exaggeration, but to put it to a more blunt point, the world itself will die, and we all may likely follow suit" It was similar to as I feared – calamity on a completely immeasurable scale! I couldn't even react to this, I could barley even comprehend what this could be like!

"This may be hard for you take in, but he himself came from the future to escape previous crimes, which while not on the scale of the crime against the universe as he is attempting now, still made him one of the world's most wanted. Mass murder was among these, and this psychopath sought to retain his freedom at any cost, even if it means dismantling law and order itself by causing this calamity." Again, there was just confused chatter, but Serge seemed a little sharper than the others.

"Excuse me Dusknoir, but how exactly do you know all this? I mean, you're highly knowledgeable but there's no way you can accurately predict the...wait, are you also-" He was cut off by an impressed looking Dusknoir, who held up his hand to get everyone's attention again.

"Indeed, I was sent to the past by my superiors for the task of bring Grovyle to justice, and I could see the effects of what was to come should there be no intervention on his attempts to bring time to a standstill. So what this means, that we are relying on our intervention and the knowledge and zeal I have invigorated in you to help bring Grovyle's genocidal dreams to an end! And I trust you will all put aside any petty disagreements and doubt and all become heroes of time itself." Arguably, I now related to Dusknoir more than I have done to anyone in my life – two people out of their location, having to lie to prevent bad consequences even though we shouldn't and that we likely disgrace the lord himself, which we were both devout to. But all disgraces and straying from Dialga's path when after our heroic actions, he would smile upon us both, and the rest of us.

I did wonder how the crap this primitive civilization achieved time travel though, and from the rate that time was beginning to become damaged, they didn't sound like they were too far from the future, no more than a decade surely, but I could be wrong. Was Dialga involved? Would he get that desperate to enlist the help of others to keep time stable? Or was it one, or more than one of his children, the elusive race of the time travelling celebi? I'd be sure to ask him about this en route.

"For those with flight capabilities, we will need you to carry some of the professionals, namely the guild and I to get to our destination quickly. The rest of you, try to make your way there on foot, do not worry about your personal possessions getting stolen – we stand to lose far too much more than mere material goods here. You!" Dusknoir pointed at one of the tropius suddenly. "You will take me and...Serge and Floyd to our location. I know roughly where the last one is, but I have no idea how to access and protect it, but we will find that out. I am taking you two with me, as you have both had a direct encounter with him. Let's do this universe and Dialga proud!"

"Right!" I said as I followed him as Serge and I quickly climbed atop the tropius's back while Dusknoir had to hold onto it's body with his arms, and admittedly looked rather silly.

"North-East is where we will travel, and for the quickest path, head straight through the Amp Plains, you'll be safe in a big number, but travel quickly – the world's counting on you!" And with him continuing to hammer in the importance of this quest into everyone's mind's, we took off into the skies, and I must admit, I was beginning to enjoy travelling this way.

Before on my first encounter with the vile monster, I was weak, anaemic and sleep deprived. Now, I was alert, wide awake and brimming with the energy needed to cripple him and deliver a punishment suitable for this. Gathering more energy from the bright sun, we soared above Treasure Town and to the North-East as I looked onwards as Dusknoir directed us towards our destination, leading us and the guild behind us, flying in formation as we earnest soldiers were now launching a full scale war against the most dangerous man in the world.

"Dusknoir, will this affect..." I said, and suddenly lowered my voice, looking around as we left Treasure Town. "Will his actions affect the human world as well?" I trembled slightly with uncertainty, but he gave quite a very confidence-boosting and inspirational response.

"No Floyd, for we will stop him." I took that as a 'yes', but ultimately he was right. Even if he did manage to get the last Time Gear, we could simply pile him and take it back, but this threat to my home world, in spite of me suffering replacement from there, filled me with the deepest fury. To my parents, Omar and all my other folks back home; to Serge, Dusknoir, the guild members and the townsfolk here: Your well being and even your very lives I shall defend as I raise the knife in pursuit of ensuring that tomorrow will come, and that it will be a bright tomorrow.


	19. Raise The Knife

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 19: Raise The Knife

Breathing heavily with total fixation on our crucial mission, we flew just below the lowest clouds which felt slightly moist as we flew right through the little bits that must have gotten separated from the main bodies. I was practically standing by this point, holding onto the tropius's neck with one hand and shielding my eyes with the other, sucking up as much sunlight as possible to push my entire body to it's extreme to give me all the strength and agility that I'd need. Serge however looked quite relaxed - far too relaxed for my liking.

"Again, Serge, this doesn't even seem like a big deal to you!" I said very quickly, almost to the extent that he didn't even understand me.

"Well, between us, I just don't think it'll happen regardless of what we do." He said, making himself looking like an overly relaxed retard, and I was about to go into another rant before he continued. "I mean time itself stopping?"

"Look, a lot of weird shit has happened lately and me becoming a pokemon here? Could be connected. Really Serge, it's hard for this not to go over our heads but have a little trust in Dusknoir here."

"Dusknoir, how did you go back in time anyway?" Serge asked Dusknoir, making me wonder why I never really questioned him about it before. Surely they couldn't have developed time travel this quickly via technologies! Which to me, only left a couple of options...

"I was sent back by one of Dialga's children, and according to this child, the other children and Dialga himself deemed this necessary."

"Dialga's children? Also known as celebi, right? Earning favour with them?! I've never even heard of anyone aside from Ivan Nazar himself earn such favourable looks from them!" I asked, knowing that their kind were known as the celebi according to the extremely rare sighting by the more scientific types who dreamed up their own name for Dialga's children. According to the Dialgan documents, they weren't children in the normal sense that more mundane species produced, and were merely Dialga's personal creation, but he was still a father to them in a metaphorical sense.

"Indeed, and whether you view me as some chosen hero or not, I'll leave up to you. I'm not in this for the glory, but it goes well for a nice bonus. I too was very afraid as law and order broke down as the entity slowly approached me through the dead trees, glowing gently green and I could not quite tell if he was using his small delicate wings for aviation or if he was using some other power to float gracefully." Serge very suddenly looked up and was now listening very intently after the description of the celebi that helped him.

"He was indeed a form of salvation, and felt that someone with a range of skills suited to this task was required, namely myself, as he regretfully told me that his fighting abilities were not very good as he had never once engaged in combat before." It was at this point where I just realised that Dusknoir's influence on us and his own actions would ultimately be the deciding factor. If Grovyle succeeded when and where Dusknoir came from then we pretty much owe everything to him, not being too far at all from the literal truth. Serge seemed to be staring at his relic fragment that he clearly didn't see fit to leave behind, yet was still evidently paying attention to Dusknoir, and looked in very deep thought.

"Anyone on Grovyle's side in the future?" He asked out of the blue, suddenly looking up, staring at Dusknoir's singular eye.

"There were a few, and he wasn't even in charge so to speak, but all his associates are either imprisoned or were killed during their resistance." He tailed off a little here, and actually seemed to look rather sad. "The one that spearheaded the whole operation was once a very good friend of mine who I may have mentioned to you. Master Drapion, the one who mastered what he dubbed as the dimensional scream, the same strange power that you have Floyd. He's been taken into custody where he will likely be executed after being crippled while trying to flee from myself and other lawbringers. It was a black, black day in my life when I found out my best friend was working to bring the collapse of time itself to cover for his own 'lesser' crimes and that of his other friends."

"I can't say I know how it feels to have this happen to you, but all I can hope for is for them to be non-lethally dismembered and left to live the rest of their days in torture and agony!" I said to this, briefly interrupting Dusknoir, which seemed to cheer the old guy up a bit.

"Indeed, but I still yearn for the days when Drapion was a close friend and taught me many things, including about Dialga himself - I wonder what caused him to turn evil. As for the others, we can probably assume a rogue celebi was responsible for letting them get back in time and will likely receive the maximum punishment if caught though given the time and energy it takes to put just one person back roughly two years, it is unlikely that he or she sent herself into the past as well."

"The other three working with Drapion and Grovyle are dead. Haxorus and Dragonite were extremely zealous and died defending the others to allow their wretched escape, and as for Charmeleon, it wasn't as certain what happened to him. He was last seen alive making a run for it as we apprehended Drapion but upon further pursuit of Grovyle and Charmeleon, his mangled corpse was found on a mountainside. Tracking them is very difficult in the never ending darkness, possibly the only reason why Grovyle got enough time to escape into the past, and once it hit towards the end of our pursuit, the celebi working with us could no longer track his location in the past. I can only assume that Grovyle enlisted help from a rogue celebi, as they were not unheard of in the future, where they seemed more than happy to betray their own father."

"You and anyone else working with you in the future have clearly already done a fantastic job! Their band of evil has been reduced to one!" I said, being rather excited. "And now us beings in the past will see that his judgement will catch up to him! What do you say Serge?!" I said, giving him a firm nudge in the side.

"Why of course!" Serge said, suddenly perking up. "I mean, this is the right thing to do. Sorry if I don't seem hugely concerned, it's just that taking it all in for a regular guy like me is pretty hard as I've said before."

"Hopefully you'll never need to fully comprehend the scale of the threat." Dusknoir said, who pointed towards the ground. "Ah, right there! During my final friendly moments with Drapion, he mentioned that the Time Gear was inside that rocky hill due to his dimensional scream ability. I instructed the others to go North-East through the plains, and they'll hopefully see people by the hill. I think I see Chatot and Wigglytuff as well, Tropius, we need you to land next to them." We soared downwards fairly slowly, and from what I could see, the two of them looked completely stumped on how to get in. To be fair, they had no idea the lake was even inside the hill and it was really too bad that Dusknoir wasn't with us at Mesprit's lake to tell them.

"It makes no sense! The lake should be here! We've seen no tunnels!" Chatot ranted on in nervousness as we landed next to him. "We've searched the entire place as well, though there's no sign of Grovyle at least, so he must still be out there. Good, we can at least guard the place for when he comes, and with the help of the rest of the guild on the horizon..." He said, and pointed to the others flying in, looking like they were about five minutes behind. "It'll be easy to stop him!"

"Excellent! Now, we should probably pace ourselves around - he may know how to get in. He's a surprisingly efficient digger for a grovyle, but this rock looks very tough, so we shouldn't worry about that. However, if he knows a less than conventional way to get in...for all we know, this could be trickery by Azelf to protect the final Time Gear." I listened in carefully, both to Dusknoir and to any surrounding sounds. Grovyle would surely be coming soon, perhaps he could be nearby right now, or worst case scenario, Wigglytuff and Chatot outright missed his timely arrival - entirely possible, as it wasn't exactly a small hill.

"This is crazy for rocks, different from what I know of." Wigglytuff said, inspecting it further. "I could blast through it if it was a thin cover to protect the lake, but it all feels very thick, but there are many things we don't know yet."

"I think I've got it. Floyd, if anyone can find out, it's you with your dimensional scream, and you'll need to help him Serge." Dusknoir said, pointing me to go over to the hill. It was a very plain and small looking hill, which might as well have been a giant grey rock that grew out of the ground, much like a miniature version of Ayers Rock.

"I can't always make myself have them, and even then, it might show nonsense, but I'll try." I said, grabbing Serge by the arm and touching the rock, trying to make myself have a vision. Nothing so far. "Come on you stupid fuck! I need answers! Now!" I kept hitting it with my hand, but eventually I succeeded, causing the familiar black out into a white light and I was once again from the perspective of floating over the giant rock. Except this time, there was no rock, and below me, I could see a very dirty, stagnant lake.

"This is a wild goose chase!" Benoit said, looking by far the most flustered. "Be they servants of Arceus or not, they havn't really been too helpful! We've been here for almost two years, and I bet my wife has left me..."

"You'd think she'd do that? Benoit, surely...well, I got us this far - and it seems like there's no supernatural or natural obstacle this time! Look, I think I see Azelf!" He said, and pointed into the lake and sure enough, a fairly small blue entity was hovering there, kind of minding his own business, and I really began to wonder how they avoided getting so bored, considering how long they've lived for. Maybe Arceus designed them to be immune from boredom, who knew.

"If this doesn't work...I see Giratina. I know the way." Acalan stated, with much disgust from Harvey, who looked like he was restraining from spitting on the little guy.

"NO! I'd rather die alone here than ever seek that abomination's help! As if he'd help us anyway, he'd just torture our souls and minds until we begged for death anyway!" Harvey yelled out in rage at the sheer thought of the idea.

"I...I'm going with Acalan if that's the case. I am very sorry Harvey, but I need to get home, but no matter what, we can hold our heads high at our achievements here - we gave those pokemon a better, more fruitful life, and we can now see what they are truly capable of. They are not just savage animals, but they have the potential to be people, and I can only hope that once they build Treasure Town, they will spread throughout the land, bringing their civilized ways to the uncivilized. I'm sure Arceus will smile on us regardless, and perhaps even Dialga and Palkia as well." Benoit finished, nodding at Harvey who looked somewhat repulsed, but also very sad to hear what Benoit said.

"...You're right, but you're still both being highly foolish! I'm not going, and I can only pray that Giratina has become more reasonable over time since Arceus's word reached our world, but I very much doubt that. Don't say I didn't warn you, friends..." He said and tailed off, looking highly miserable as they walked down to meet Azelf. I could only assume that Harvey changed his mind since he wrote his exploits here and passed it off as a fictional novel that ended up being as famous as it was controversial at the time, with still a lot of controversy about it to this very day, claiming it promoted Giratinan values, which were still highly shunned, and for very good reason.

Interesting as this was, it wasn't exactly helpful per se - the surrounding rock wasn't even there, but given it wasn't there before, it did lead me to a conclusion - this must be part of Azelf's defence against Grovyle, since he now knows that he is coming and could now prepare for it. Maybe it was in a similar vein to the conjured Groudon illusion - feels real enough, but upon closer inspections...and it was at this point where I was snapped out of the vision and awoken with a familiar headache after it was over.

"What did you see? Tell us, quickly!" Dusknoir asked very quickly, showing signs of slight unease for the very first time, showing me that even he was subject to pressure. I responded and told him in brief of what I saw, but all it really done was comfirm our suspicions that this giant rock-hill was part of Azelf's defence. Chatot who had come round on his search however, seemed to be very curious of me at this point.

"Er, Floyd are you safe? Not hurt? You just passed out." He squawked a bit and flapped his wings.

"Dimensional Scream." Dusknoir said and briefly explained it, to which Chatot responded with a genuinely amazed tone.

"You're no ordinary snivy..." He said curiously, looking all around.

"You could say that." I responded, but Dusknoir kept us on topic.

"I think we need a way to find how to pass it, just incase Grovyle knows how to get in - we may need to give chase. I understand if it's hard for you Floyd, but this is imperative!"

"Take it easy on him!" Serge said, but I was having none of this as I tried to force a vision out of the giant illusionary rock again. "Something useful, how to get in...say, whatever caused this makes me feel so significant!" I muttered as I kept jabbing the rock with Serge at my side, and after a moment, I plunged into a vision once more.

This time, the rock was here, but this time it was causing excruciating pain for some reason, and not just in my head. It was almost like I was seeing red it was that painful, but I could make out Wigglytuff standing guard on the other side of the rock, looking very alert. Trying to turn the vision around only increased the pain, and as important as it was, I was not strong enough to endure anything but looking straight forward at this point. A shadow to my left moved very quickly, and it turned out to be the villainous abomination himself, Grovyle. I was sincerely hoping that this was the near future in which we could prevent him from successfully sneaking past us, which only cemented how ruthlessly skilled he was at being evil.

He was roughly on top of the giant rock, but just slightly to the left of where I was looking right now. Keeping my eyes open was hard, and it felt like I had nothing to bite down on to deal with the agony, but I could see him looking at some notes that he had with him and very quickly felt around the rocky hill to then find what seemed to be a hole, even though it just looked like ordinary stone. I assumed that it was a break in the illusion of some sort as his hand suddenly went right through and he seemed to be trying to feel around for something, but what it was, I had no idea.

Suddenly, I could hear a voice yelling belonging to Serge, calling out his location, and then screaming my own name. Grovyle then seemed to vanish inside the rocky illusion, and the pain got so much by this point that I was kicked out of the vision forcefully, as I screamed in pain as Serge shook me.

"Floyd, we just saw Grovyle vanish inside!" I got up immediately and ignored everything else and charged up the hill, sprawling on all fours. There was no time to lose now, or else we'd be losing time itself altogether!

"That vision was in the present, and I know how to follow him!" I growled slightly as the others followed me up, albeit slower than I would have liked, though that was likely because I was in better shape than the others. I scrambled to the point where Grovyle was and had a look around - nothing out of the ordinary, but feeling it, it was a little strange.

"It was here exactly, I'm sure of it!" I said to the others as they had caught up with me as parts of the stone felt very soft. So soft at some points that I was able to stick my hand right through, only to feel air beneath. It freaked me out somewhat to see almost my whole arm disappear. but I knew it was all part of some illusion. In many respects, the rock wasn't even there, and by merely waving my hand around to see if I could feel anything, the stone around me started getting softer until I eventually fell in, holding onto the edge with my vines.

"Floyd, you're amazing! Try making the hole bigger for Wigglytuff and I to get in." Dusknoir told me, and that's just what I did. To be fair, I had absolutely no idea why this was working, but I wasn't questioning it this time. With the five of us now inside, it seemed like we were in some dirty tunnels, with the walls lined with some kind of crystal that didn't shine or sparkle at all, and it all looked a bit dead. I'd be thinking 'jackpot!' if it weren't for Grovyle and Wigglytuff took the lead. Grovyle's footsteps could be seen in front of us, though at points they seemed to erratically disappeared.

The tunnel seemed fairly wide, but even then, we still coughed to get some of the dust out of our mouths and faces. We could see movement towards the end of the tunnel - Grovyle! Unfortunately, he also saw us, and seemed to ruthlessly attack the tunnel wall, and based on what Chatot told me earlier, he was clearly trying to collapse part of the tunnel. Chatot and Wigglytuff reacted the quickest and were unusually reckless as they charged forward, but we then soon found out why Grovyle's footsteps were so erratic as sharp crystals suddenly sprouted from above and below them, looking far more beautiful than the dirty tunnel wall.

"Fuck! We're trapped, but we're ok!" Chatot said, as Wigglytuff could be seen between the crystal spikes trying to use brute force to break them, and it seems like he might succeed soon, but would it be soon enough? The cave in already happened as dirt, rocks and boulders sealed us in here as Grovyle now had a clear shot at the Time Gear. "Floyd, for the love of fuck, calm down! I'll guide you past any more traps, I can recognize them - just too bad Azelf couldn't make them exclusively for Grovyle. We squeezed past the crystal trap that held the guild leaders, Dusknoir having a bit of difficulty, and Chatot guided us past the other one without too much difficulty. As for the cave in, this could take some time.

"We may have to rely on you two again, I can clear the rubble at the top first as trying to blast it could cause severe injury to all of us if the rocks shred our bodies. I'll follow you through as soon as I can, but this time, we surely have Azelf on our side." He told us as he started pulling rocks from the top of the tunnel.

"Hey, Floyd, just want to tell you something, you look horribly stressed." Serge said to me as we helped Dusknoir clear the rubble.

"Well, no shit! I should be stressed, as should you!" I said, hacking at the rocks with my head leaf.

"Look, I'm sure everything will end up fine. I mean, have a think about it - if there indeed deities out there as you have said, I'm sure they'd make the multiverse far harder to break, right? I'm just saying, maybe Dusknoir's just panicking a bit too much, or just blowing things out of proportion to make sure that everyone's on side."

"Well if he is, then he's doing a very good job, which is highly commendable! These Time Gears are Dialga's property! However with agents such as Dusknoir and..." I paused in thought for a moment. Could it be that...?

"There, you can squeeze through now, I'll meet you on the other side, and I hope it won't be too late when we arrive." Dusknoir said as he helped us through, and looking back at them one last time, we saw three people who could easily kick our ass count on us, with Wigglytuff and Chatot also wishing us luck as it seemed like they were about to break free.

"Crazy thoughts here, but do you think your relic fragment has anything to do with all this and me?" I asked Serge as we bolted it down the natural corridor, hearing grunts and all manner of battle noises that told me that Grovyle and Azelf were in a fight.

"Part of the mystery now isn't it." Serge responded, taking another look at it for luck. "I was really intrigued at what Dusknoir said about the celebi that helped him - that description seemed to be familiar..."

"Well, maybe we were both destined for great things, as much as I am repulsed by the idea of destiny. Regardless, this will seal us in the important archives for good in this world, and your dream of becoming a top grade explorer? This will seal it for you!" I said, perking up Serge to get him in the ideal state of mind for the task ahead. The scabby tunnel opened up into an awe-inducing cavern of crystals of all sorts that shined all manner of shades of blue across each and every inch of this illusionary cave. As pretty as all this was, I knew it wasn't exactly real, not to mention there were more important things to worry about, especially as Azelf fell to the ground after being savagely cut down by Grovyle, clearly now unconscious.

"You two again? Tenacious assistants of Dusknoir...I was perhaps right to fear his persuasion abilities." Grovyle told us, seeing that the Time Gear was locked in crystal, but as seen from earlier, it could be broken. Thankfully, we were going to cripple him before he could do such a horrible thing.

"Damn fucking right it's us! As if we'd let you bring time to a standstill and turn the planet into a lifeless husk! The people of Treasure Town are hardly this apathetic!" I yelled back at him, as fury started to fill my bloodstreams.

"Hmph, very well, I'll simply have to deal with you two again - it wasn't hard the last time, so if you don't want to be injured or worse, I suggest you just stand back." There was no taking shit from Grovyle this time - righteousness had finally caught up with him!

"Oh that fucking does it!" I shouted as I charged at him with Serge roughly behind me as we engaged in battle with the most serious of opponents. Falling to him was simply not an option! I suddenly stopped in my tracks to send a whole barrage of sharp leaves from both my head and tail in a wide cone to help ensure I'd hit this highly agile adversary. However, he was even faster than I had expected as he leapt right above it and produced a strange ball of energy in his hands that was similar to the one that badly injured Mesprit. I might not be able to get up after a direct hit from that, but thankfully Serge was on the case as a torrent of flames shot from above me, burning Grovyle and stopping his mid-air attack.

I wasted no time in following up with a brutal tail axe attack, as it glowed green, truly becoming like a natural axe and slashed viciously at grovyle's body, sending him crashing to the ground. I could have squealed in delight at seeing him in pain like this, but he got up almost immediately and blocked my follow up attack before slashing at me with his other arm leaves in a similar fashion to our last encounter, sending me a few feet in the air as I landed on the ground, bleeding gently. It'd take more than that to stop me and my will, but for now, Serge took the initiative and delivered a dangerous flaming barge while Grovyle was distracted.

"Go for it!" I choked as I slowly got to me feet as Grovyle was already looking roughed up, but he seemed like by far the most determined adversary we had encountered so far as he counterattacked almost immediately after being knocked back by Serge. He jumped over the stream of flames and slashed at his face before he could even look up, and each time we managed to hurt him, the quicker and more determined he seemed to get. It was a fairly glancing blow since Serge was a bit tougher than I was, but it only fueled Grovyle's wrath as he kept rushing Serge was furious blows that I could barely notice with the naked eye.

Though injured, I was now ready to take another shot at Grovyle, as I vertically hacked the air in front of me, sending more leaves that this time hit Grovyle right on his side, some of them sticking into his skin and flesh as we finally drew blood from him. Be as determined as you like, there's fixed limits on how much you can take. I ran at Grovyle once more but this time, all was most certainly not well, as he suddenly threw one of those green energy spheres he had in his left hand and threw it at me so fast that I couldn't react and it was a direct hit and it felt like I was in the middle of an explosion as pain seared throughout just about my entire body as I was sent crashing into the cave wall, dazing me so badly I could barely see, but I could still feel the pain that felt like burning all over my body. I wasn't out yet, but with Grovyle running at me to finish me off...

"You leave Floyd alone, you...bastard!" Serge yelled as he seemed to build up so much heat within him that I could feel it from here. The air shimmered and what happened next, I had no idea he was remotely capable of doing. The ground cracked just in front of him, and what I saw might as well have been lava that he tried to bring it crashing down on Grovyle, which he only narrowly avoided, but couldn't evade the little splash of the wave of molten rock that burned his right arm rather badly, and Serge clearly hadn't finished yet as he wreathed his entire body in searing flames, and it here that Grovyle looked a little worried.

"Dusknoir recruited by far the most powerful cyndaquil I've ever seen...had no idea that the pokemon of this world would be this dangerous!" Grovyle said to himself, dodging more flames, and he seemed to be trying to figure out how best to beat him. Serge however surely would not be beaten! I now knew that Serge was really something special, and it was an honour to be his friend - no one would fuck with me with a friend this dangerous in combat!

Energy spheres and flames collided, causing explosions that I was very glad to be far away from, not that I had a choice being this injured right now. I had to help him somehow, but my body protested with pain shooting through my limbs every time I tried to move them, leaving me almost paralyzed in this position, covering up the occasional bleeding wound. Maybe in just a moment or two, I could assist.

"I will be forced to use lethal force if you do not stand down, I have no interest in killing someone like you." Grovyle announced as deftly dodged another stream of flames and almost hit Serge head on with another ball of green light, knocking him back a couple of meters, yet Serge didn't even seem to care as his body erupted with flames as he charged with blazing speed, possibly more than what I could have done right at Grovyle as soon as he landed, hitting him dead on and blasting him away with a small explosion of flames. I was sure that would be the decisive blow as soon as I saw Grovyle be sent so far in the air that he bashed against the cave wall, but he got up after mere seconds, his entire body looking like it was suffering from burns all over.

"You tried to kill Floyd! And as you've seen, I am having none of it!" Serge said as he seemed to be trying to get his breath back after such an energy draining attack, Grovyle doing the same.

"Doesn't matter, I will not have my plans interrupted!" Grovyle yelled and sprayed what seemed to be rock hard seeds out of his mouth like a machine gun right at Serge who seemed to have started to exhaust himself badly from overexertion, and was unable to dodge and seemed to be pinned down by the constant barrage as Grovyle closed in very rapidly, taking a vicious swipe with his leaf blades on both his arms. Poor guy must be on his last legs here, the fire around his body was beginning to die out, and I was still too crippled with pain and injury to help. I felt useless as he rushed in for another brutal swipe before Serge did something quite spectacular.

Just as Grovyle was going to deliver a final attack to the wasted form of Serge, he suddenly screamed out louder than I thought possible from him, and whether it was out of pain or anger, I couldn't tell, though it was possibly both. He himself has seemed to become an explosion as fire from all sides of his body burned and blasted away all within his vicinity, including Grovyle. Behind all that power, he seemed to be pretty much crying in agony, as it seemed to hurt him just as much as it did Grovyle as the amazing attack finally ended as he fell to the ground in a heap, completely unconscious - or at least I assumed that, because I knew Serge wasn't stupid enough to accidentally kill himself.

Unfortunately, after the minute passed, Grovyle miraculously managed to get up, but how?! All those burns should have left him hospitalized at least! Perhaps even with permanent injuries, or even death at a stretch?! Who was this Grovyle?! He seemed very unsteady on his feet and was grunting in pain, as he didn't look well at all, but it seemed like desperation alone was carrying him through. He gazed over at the time gear and started limping towards the crystal that encased it. Was this it then? Were Serge and I just not strong enough to stop the collapse of time itself? Was Dusknoir and the others too slow at clearing the path for their far larger bodies?

Images of my old home came to mind, along with my Father, Omar, and all else that I held dear to back there, and images of what I held dear to me - Serge, the guild, and most importantly of all, myself - all living in a world with no daylight. I pictured Dialga himself, the only entity I regarded as being higher than myself, suffering both physical and mental agony as his ethereal form shuddered as I also began to imagine precious law and order slowly collapse as the people of both world opened up to their more savage, primal side as the rules that help keep us good, earnest people slowly broke away as they began pillaging and murdering each other for the dwindling resources including food and water. The world dying, and it's inhabitants soon to follow...

...Under no circumstances could I possibly allow this to happen! Fuck my injuries, and my agony be damned! I had a high opinion of myself, but I never thought I was a hero to myself, or anyone, but here is where that'd all change! I'd be the greatest hero this world has ever seen! I'd prevent the biggest disaster to all living things of all time!

"I...I don't fucking think so Grovyle!" I yelled, cutting him off as he stood about fifteen meters away from me, as I became the only thing standing between him and the last time gear. Pain? I could feel none of it now, as it was of nominal importance, a mere distraction that I brushed aside.

"I will eliminate you if I must, snivy." He said, sounding a little weak, not being too steady on his feet. "The stakes are far too great for me to care for who lives or dies for this mission."

"Eliminate ME?! You're not eliminating ANYONE!" I smiled slightly, as both of us tried to catch our breath, but I really needed some pep talk for this, to truly put things into perspective to do the most difficult, and, by a thousand million fucking miles, the most important thing in my life.

"So you think you'll bring time to an end?! No! Not while I'm here!" Grovyle gave me a really odd look, surely stunned at how my raw vigour and determination matched his own. "The purpose in life? Dialga has taught me it's to become the best person you can possibly be, something you obviously are trying to actively avoid by sabotaging the lord's property!" He continued to give me even more puzzled looks, and looked like he was ready to fight again.

"And, after all this time here, I've now discovered my true purpose...of why I'm here!" My speech patterns became more intermittent as rage, pride, courage and the will to fend off evil filled my mind and my entire body, every blood vessel and nerve ending preparing itself to focus on nothing else than beating this Grovyle to the brink of death. "I...I bring justice...I...I AM JUSTICE! Dialga's justice! Surely the reason why I'm here, as I am now...it's to stop you, to save the flow of time itself! I...I must be Dialga's chosen champion! Time's destined hero! Time will always flow! ALWAYS!"

"What...just, who are you?!" Grovyle said, looking rather angry as he looked a little wary of me - as he should be, with the knowledge that Dialga's law was finally upon him.

"The others will catch up soon, but not before I can bring Dialga's way to you personally. Tell me Grovyle - what's it like living without arms? You don't know? Well, you can tell me moments later...AFTER I SEVER THEM CLEAN OFF YOUR MISERABLY BODY!" I screamed with utmost force as Grovyle and I ran at each other, both of us ignoring all injuries and other restraints, us clearly being as devout to our cause as the other. My mind had total control over my body, as all pain receptors seemed to vanish even further into the background as I ducked below his cutting attack and I with great nimbleness, twisted around to slice at his torso with my tail leaf.

He reeled back from the attack, but I wasn't done yet as I leapt after him, slicing at him with both my head and tail lead at once with a deft aerial maneuver, the blood I drew from Grovyle's now-fragile skin filling me with righteous glee, only fueling my ambition to see him be permanently crippled. His injuries seemed to be far worse than my own, and I still was going at it, but he still managed to recover from my brutal attack run and put more distance between us.

"Writhing in agony yet?!" I yelled as I charge at him yet again our incoming head-on collision was blocked when we swung at each other, parrying each other's blows with an audible scraping sounds as we tried to overpower one another. I grunted as I put my whole body weight into pushing forward with both my head and tail leaf, and my body was under so much stress by this point I was now viewing Grovyle and my environment with a red tinge to everything. However, I was simply a lot smaller than he was, and I was almost forced to my knees. Not that it mattered though as he opened his mouth and shot hundreds of rock hard seeds at my at point blank range, breaking my skin or whatever this semi-scaly stuff covered my body.

"I cannot let my efforts, or my comrade's be all for naught!" Grovyle was sounding increasingly desperate as he sliced at me, knocking me back and adding another red line to my already rather bloodied torso. My vision blurred ever so slightly as I began laughing under my breath somewhat uncontrollably, for reasons why I couldn't understand.

"I...surely can't be killed...hahahaha, HAHAHA! Grovyle! You can't win! There's simply no way!" I said, and by this point, I really wasn't sure what was happening anymore, as the hate for him only kept building, and I was slowly becoming aware that I really should have passed out by now. "It's impossible for you to get the time gear! Give up! GIVE UP!" Grovyle foolishly tried to attack me head on again only for me to try some really strange stuff that my creative mind was beginning to think of right on the spot. Punching him with my vines? He didn't see that coming as I knocked him off balance as he skidded across the ground beside me, his face grinding against the ground.

"Oh, why don't you just roll over already! Accept it! You've lost! And I'll be taking your arms as a trophy of justice!" My throat was starting to feel painful as I pounced on him, aiming to try and slice at his arm muscles, but a parry and a pushback sent me back to another stand-off, albeit this one was very brief.

"I'd be asking the same question as well...seems like the neverending darkness really got to you, snivy." His weakening voice - a sign of my imminent hero status! Images of the never ending darkness and the effects it'll have on all that I hold dear only fueled me, in spite of my body wasting beneath the surface. Fortunately, my vines were not wasting and I used then quickly to trip Grovyle up as he got up to attack again, and throughout possibly sheer force of will, I started draining his pitiful energy reserves - energy that was previously been wasted on evil that was now serving righteousness! He didn't take too well at them and tried to cut them clean off, so I had no choice but to pull them back.

"I don't know how...why...or what this will do...but you...now..." Emotions ran so deeply and intensely now that I well and truly had no idea what I was saying anymore. I felt myself cry it was that powerful and with it, I felt myself summon razor sharp leaves all around me as I pushed myself a couple of meters in the air with my left vine alone, the one untouched by Grovyle. By now, I could only make out his brief outline for all the red, the dizziness and all the images my mind was giving, but it was clear enough, even through the cloud of leaves, and it was about then that I knew it was time.

Putting everything I had into this, I spun rapidly, gaining more control of all the cutting leaves around me, feeling total physical control of everything around me as the leaves became a violent storm that rushed like an arrow bombardment at Grovyle as I once again began to laugh uncontrollably. How did I manage to do this? Simple, because I was the hero, and it was now I figured out that Dialga chose me over anyone else for the job - an absolute natural of snivy combat, and I now knew that I'd have drawn enough blood now to cause him to collapse for real this time. Thinking of Dialga through the dust cloud that my utterly brutal attack had caused, I knew I was forbidden to actually kill him. Still, I was sure that grovyles were very sturdy and resilient to blood loss - probably in some nature documentary I saw, and if I seal the thousand cuts I gave him, I might be able to claim my trophy. That was it then - absolutely no conceivable way he could still be standing, nope, none, nada, it was done, good has triumphed. Good thing too, for I felt myself about to pass out...perhaps the others can-

"NOOO!" Grovyle suddenly yelled and in the blink of an eye, he rushed so fast I could barely see, hitting me once, twice, three times across my body with his leaf blades in the space of a single second, sending my crashing to the ground. Just who was this grovyle?! This unnatural freak - all that punishment would have outright killed any normal pokemon by now?! Despair filled me as he delivered the final attack - a direct hit with a green energy ball, and the only thought I could think of as my body was sent several meters across the cave was about whether I was truly worthy of being the hero. I failed, the final time gear was his, and it was only a matter of time.

I was barely conscious, feeling life seep from my body, having gotten way too much punishment for it to take. Was this how I was to die? And to think I'd die a failure in my eleventh hour...Dialga...I gave it my absolute best shot, but I am currently unable to go on. I don't understand how that monstrosity could take so much punishment. Familiar voices seemed to be calling out, and they were getting closer - a detail that Dialga missed about describing death? And yet, something to my right told me that everything might end up alright after all. Dusknoir and the others finally broke through, clearing all the boulders that blocked their path. Hah...maybe I couldn't beat Grovyle, but I stalled him for long enough - he was practically crawling for the Time Gear at this point, but there was no such thing as Dusknoir gave him his own ball-of-destruction attack that he used to save Serge and I from the manectric pack.

"Is Serge OK? Floyd...oh, god Floyd! It's bad Wigglytuff! It's really bad!" Chatot squawked, seeming to have complete trust in Dusknoir's abilities to finish Grovyle off, which he seemed to do with a single attack. Not like there was really anything left in Grovyle, good for him. I couldn't claim my trophy, but whether I would make it or not, I was surely a hero now, something I never dreamed I could achieve in any way, yet it happened.

"I'll carry him out and put him on the fastest tropius! I don't know if he has much longer!" Wigglytuff said as I felt myself being picked up into his arms. They almost felt warm and comforting now, as I saw Serge slowly get up and Dusknoir finally apprehending the unconscious Grovyle. Dialga...I hope I done you proud...

Was I to live or die? Who knew, but if I were to die, all I could say was this: At least I died doing something amazing.


	20. The Heroes Of Time

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 20: The Heroes Of Time

"Come on, hurry! I don't know how much longer he has..."

"Above the low lying clouds! The sunlight will heal his grave wounds faster, slow stem the bleeding!"

"I promise, if you get him back to Treasure Town in time, you'll be regarded as a hero among your kind! And you will do it! I am not having one of my most valued guild members die in my vicinity!"

I presumed I heard these words from Wigglytuff mid-flight towards Treasure Town, but there was no way to really be sure. The voice sounded so distorted from my punished form, and every glimpse I managed to get from when I eyes opened slightly was just a blur of blue skies and occasionally pink from Wigglytuff holding me. Each time consciousness faded in, I felt weaker and ever closer to death, but even then, I could feel the rays of the star bathing my body in it's light, staving off the chilly air and the cold hand of death as my leaves were very receptive to this, soaking them up to surely keep me alive. These were the last thoughts before I fell unconscious once more, and it was clear I wouldn't be waking up again for the rest of the trip – my body doesn't need to spend energy on thoughts when I'm externally and internally bleeding this badly...

…

"Ah, Floyd!" I wasn't exactly sure where I was for a brief moment, or where the voice was coming from. "Aren't you the brave one!" He spoke again as the world zoomed in and it seemed to be at the lake where I fought Grovyle, the crystalline walls still shimmering. Surely the tropius wasn't stupid enough to go back when I was dying!

"Well then, I never thought you'd ever be able to do something like that in your life! I am ridiculously proud!" This time I saw who it was, and it was...me? Yep, a snivy with the same features – slightly darker scales, the leaf on the head, the rugged chin, quite tall by snivy standards. The only difference I could really see was that he was injury free, unlike myself, and yet, I could move around just fine without any pain at all!

"I mean, you took turning into what I look like now, being away from home, fighting constantly and taking down what could possibly be regarded as the world's most ambitious evil-doer in history in the space of two and a half months! Hey, I can't be sure whether you were actually Dialga's specially chosen hero to do this, but hey – you might as well be!"

"Thanks..." I said, still a bit confused as to what was happening. I could only assume by this point that it was a dream due to all the inconsistencies, including another me. Unless, of course, it was the afterlife, which I sincerely hoped it wasn't! I still had about sixty years left in me, surely!

"Still, I wonder what will happen to you now? Will you return home? Might not even be an option, but I guess it all remains to be seen, eh?" He said, zipping round and holding me from the side, tapping me on the chest, acting way too outgoing to be a proper representation of me. He seemed to stop for a bit, and sniffed the air slightly, before lowering his voice just a little.

"See Grovyle over there? Notice what's missing?" He pointed, and I could see him lying helplessly on his side, a bleeding hole that was closing rather quickly where his left arm should have been, and it was at that moment that I was poked with something. "Here's to you, Floyd, one of the heroes of time!" He said, throwing Grovyle's severed arm at me at such a short range I barely had time to catch it. He certainly looked better in more than one piece, and I gloriously swung the arm around as if it were a claymore, an old, huge weapon used by the people of my country centuries ago.

"Well, Grovyle, you lost!" I said with glee before striking his barely conscious form with his own arm, and boy did it feel good, as the sadistic glee I always wanted with him was now achievable, but this sure didn't flow with the previous events of how I was nearly killed by the vile pokemon. Regardless, I still took great pride and happiness continually beating him with the soggy end of his own arm, but my thoughts of this being some strange dream were finally confirmed.

"I think it's time for you to wake up now. You know that talking to yourself is a common sign of madness, right? And it was indeed quite scary seeing you go mad at that fight against Grovyle...so perhaps it's about time that you got humanized by your friends. Well, not physically, but you get what I mean." I could hear other people chatting all around, but I could not see them as I felt myself blink heavily a few times, seeing Azelf's lake blur away very quickly as the other me waved me goodbye before I found myself on some kind of bed, basking in the star's sunlight again.

"Floyd!" I noticed Serge to my right as he outright went up to my poor aching self and gave me a hug, causing my vision to suddenly blur again as he started squeezing me. "You're awake!"

"...Let go...it hurts." I said, gasping for breath from my still-weakened frame. His smile faded slightly as he let me go and allowed me to breathe. A deep breathe allowed me to inhale the glorious air once more to truly make me feel that I was alive, and alive I was. No fatalities at all it would seem! Everyone lives!

"We fucking did it man..." I said happily, still feeling very exhausted and in pain, but the fires of agony had died down significantly. "Back then, I honestly thought I was going to die a failed hero – looks like the others came just in time, eh?"

"I knew you wouldn't die Floyd." Serge chuckled and grinned. "You're far too stubborn to die! Here, I got you this gummi if the nurse doesn't mind."

"I assure you, he needs rest!" An irked bilssey stood by on the other side of the stretcher, or whatever their equivalent was in this word who groaned slightly, and I could tell that it was one of 'those' nurses.

"It's against regulations, but fine, go on." She said, groaning slightly as I ate it, and I did feel quite a bit better – not any healthier, but a bit happier as the sweet taste filled my mouth before vanishing down my throat.

"Say, there's something I don't quite understand. You seemed really angry there when you were fighting Grovyle when I was put out of commission for a short while, like you suddenly really thought that the world was really under threat." I told Serge, who smiled back at me meekly.

"Just because I knew that you were to stubborn to die doesn't mean that you're stubborn enough to get severely injured, as you are now, because, well, I like you too much, dammit!." He chuckled merrily. "We both make up Team Conviction, and I'm not having my partner succumb to such grave injuries, even if I had to suffer them myself. I wouldn't have been able to become an explorer without you Floyd – I owe you that much." I blushed ever so slightly at the sweetened compliments, and I was certainly eating them up.

"I don't think that you'd think very high of me if I didn't help you out when you were down, and, well, you know what happened when we argued and split the team for a few days – it was bad for both of us. And besides, you really seemed to dive into the idea of these Time Gears regulating the whole multiverse's flow of time or whatever you called it again – if it means that much to you, then I think it's definitely worth me lending a hand to you." Serge finished and smiled warmly at me, and I must confess, even I was having that slightly fuzzy feeling.

"You know Serge, of all the people I first met when I wound up here...I'm really glad it was you. Not sure if I told you that already, but if I didn't...well...I said it now." I already felt slightly out of breath and chest pains started flaring up. The gashes across my chest had healed quite a bit, but they were still there for sure.

"It's lucky that you were a snivy of all species – they can recover from injuries most pokemon can't if they get a lot of sunlight. The same applies to Grovyle, but we just dumped him in a cell to leave him to deal with it while you were unconscious. Oh, and don't mind my stuffy attitude – it's partially a façade to stop people rushing in all at once to give you your hero's dues. You two are probably more beloved than Wigglytuff himself now." Blissey said, sounding a little more friendly now that she saw that I wasn't in serious pain or anything.

"Say Serge, I believe you said you always wanted to be a world famous explorer, right?" Serge nodded and agreed with me. "Well then...I think you got it within a mere couple of months or so! Did they treat you like the exalted world-protecting celebrity hero that you truly are?"

"I'd say so! I'd step outside, and get people swarming around me, giving thanks endlessly. The Exploration Weekly are considering putting us at – get this – the top exploration team of all time! Even better than Team Raider who don't even know what failure is, according to legend that is. Look here!" He was extremely excited, and who wouldn't be? I'd be pretty sure that we'd go down in history now! He passed me the magazine for me to look at, and his words were fully accurate.

"Like these old looking raider guys saved multiple planes of existence at once from devastation! And where were they when this was all happening? Camping in a cave with their monocles and cups of tea and not really giving a shit?! Useless cunts, I'll be going to the editor if we're not seen as the best exploration team of all time! Oh, give credit to Dusknoir as well – couldn't have done it without his help and guidance." I started coughing as I ran out of breath, feeling exhausted once more. Maybe I did need some rest after all, and besides, nothing particularly pressing was happening. "Well, I think that's your dream complete already – what's next...?"

"Floyd, I think we'll continue to do great things. I mean, I can't even be sure if these Time Gears help keep time in check and stuff, but then I remembered what Chatot and Wigglytuff said, that deathly still sensation? The same one we felt at Mesprit's lake as the Time Gear was taken. I was admittedly a little sceptical of your convictions or Dusknoir's tales and explanations, but maybe I was just finding the whole thing harder to grasp than anyone else. I mean, the idea of the fate of everyone being dictated by a mere few people?"

"Serge...there is nothing remotely 'mere' about us!" I said, letting out another cough, but Serge was once again distracted, looking at his relic fragment again.

"All this talk of other worlds...maybe that will be the future of exploration? Wigglytuff has often said that within a few years, the exploration guild might as well become a caving guild, since they're pretty much the only undiscovered lands that are on this continent, and flying expeditions have usually been unsuccessful due to the immense distance that they are thinking about and stormy weather. Say, maybe one day we'll even get to visit and explore where you came from!" Serge seemed rather wide eyed at the prospect.

"Maybe we will..." I said, as I started to drift off to sleep, but Serge still had a few words to share before I'd be completely out.

"And another area we'll all eventually explore – what happens to us when we die." I raised an eyebrow limply at the sudden morbid tone shift. "I can't help but wonder if that's just it when it happens. It's the final frontier for us all really, but perhaps there is more than one frontier beyond even death itself. But we'll be waiting a long, long time to discover that won't we? Not like we'll be fighting anyone that evil and vicious again, so we won't be throwing ourselves into as much danger." He gazed once more at his relic fragment once more before I fell asleep. This time, I couldn't remember my dream, but I sure slept far better this time. I must have slept very well because I felt very well rested since it was almost as bright as it was yesterday, and I felt much better for it. Perhaps I could even get up and walk!

"You seem to be making a very quick recovery, I think I can let you back and have the guild take care of you." Blissey said almost immediately my eyes fluttered opened. "You'll still feel stiff and likely have mild pains for a few days, but there's not much aside from rest and some well earned relaxation time that will fix that. Want to walk around?" I was helped to my feet, and I saw that most of my cuts, gashes and bruises had all diminished drastically, with almost no sign of bruising. The cuts had become mere pale red lines on my skin, but the gashes had fairly ugly scabs on them. I had sure seen better days for my physical health.

"Oof...well, thanks Blissey for looking after me here. I suppose I should return home to the guild now. I'll explain to Chatot that I won't be up for taking any jobs for a few days."

"It was the least I could do, and let's hope you don't get swarmed too much by new admirers!" She giggled slightly and let me out, and she subtly hinted at, there were a few people just waiting outside who clapped suddenly and all ran at me, shaking my hands and other limbs. It was an absolute joy to be loved like this as I took it too heart and screamed in glee for a brief second.

"I did this for you guys! And myself of course, Serge, Dusknoir, Chatot, Wigglytuff and myself...the heroes of fucking everything!" I was wondering if they were going to ask me if I wanted carried back to the guild by the small mass that had surrounded me, but I wasn't given a choice as I was hoisted above them and cheered by an even bigger crowd of what must have been each and every species of pokemon I could imagine. All happy to see I was doing fine now, all happy that their world would not suffer the never ending darkness and insanity that Dusknoir warned about what could happen, and all more than happy to give the heroes of time their dues.

I guess I had to admit deep down that I honestly thought that people who claim that they don't give a shit about what people think of them are kidding themselves. To be loved on this sort of level by the masses as they chanted my name over and over again – absolute euphoria! I once two believed in my teenage years that what others thought of me didn't matter, but this experience, more than any other, proved me delightfully wrong. Maybe I didn't like this dimension too much, but perhaps I would get used to it after all. I even signed a couple of autographs with a really untidy scrawl saying 'Floyd Munro – a true hero!' that was barely legible, but they didn't seem to care. I was dropped off at the entrance of the guild with my new fan base cheering once again as I slipped down the ladder. I just hope that the others involved would get credit as well. Come to think of it, the entire town did at least something to help – perhaps we should organize a celebration if no one's done so yet.

"And the last of the saviours arrive!" Chatot said, smiling at me for once, which felt a little bit creepy coming from him as the lines beside his beak curved upwards as eyes were suddenly far warmer and friendlier than I had ever seen them. If he still hated me now, I'd be very tempted to smash him all the way across the room!

"Mind your step, you still seem a little roughed up. I'd advise you stay within Treasure Town for the next few days, Serge said that he was fine going alone. Our work never ends, for better or worse, and there's still people needing rescued, crooks needing locked up, areas to survey, you get the idea. Wish I was there to pound Grovyle into the dust personally, but I shouldn't be complaining – as much as I would enjoy the glory of it all, as it was part of the reason why I became an explorer in the first place, the stakes were just too high." He looked around with a somewhat worried expression on his face, clearly looking to see if anyone was about.

"Between you and me Floyd..." He said, leading me to a quiet corner in the room. He inhaled and gave an unintentionally amusing expression, as he clearly didn't want to say this. "...I'm sorry for treating you like shit since you arrived here." He said, rubbing his beak with his right wing.

"It's really too bad I jumped to conclusions, since we actually have a lot in common, in spite of me being over twice your age, even though we both look like middle class geezers. Seriously, I hope we can go on a little human artifact hunt one of these days." Chatot said, and while I was a bit taken aback by this, he seemed genuine.

"Sure, I guess. Look, it's against my policy to accept apologies without some sort of repayment or retribution, but I guess-"

"I'll buy you a drink at the coffee shop." He blurted out quite suddenly, but looked almost ashamed in the way that he phrased it, as if he was trying to buy me out with something cheap, but this time, I felt the gesture of good will was enough, and I guess it would be preferable than having each other at our throats.

"Sounds good to me." I actually gad goof faith in Chatot that he might actually make it up to me over time. I guess it'd be better than nagging him – good gestures are better when they aren't asked if you ask me and Dialga. However, there was one thought that was bugging me – was Chatot only acting nicer towards me because I was an extreme overachiever, only caring that I was good at this whole guild business, or because I wasn't the underhand sleazebag he thought I was?

"Off topic, Chatot, but it doesn't seem like you and Wigglytuff to much exploring or teaching. Hate to sound accusing or anything, but what exactly do you and Wigglytuff do aside from roll in the high income you receive? I mean, shouldn't you be teaching us more directly? It's pretty unfair how much money is taken from us, considering there's very little direct teaching." Chatot looked a little shocked initially as his eyes narrowed and opened his beak slowly before shaking his head, looking rather thoughtful.

"...I'll forward that to Wigglytuff. Perhaps you would like to come with me when I explain this to him – if I get my head chewed for it, you're getting yours chewed as well." Chatot said before doing an about turn and marched towards Wigglytuff's office. If Wigglytuff dared throw a tantrum at the mere suggestion, I'd be very tempted to leave the guild and do everything I can to undermine his reputation, but I doubted that it was the case. Voices seemed to come from inside his office, one of them obviously being Wigglytuff, and another being vaguely familiar, sounding elderly.

"May I enter Guildmaster? Floyd is here as well." Chatot said, and after a brief pause, Wigglytuff opened the door, looking like he was quite lost in the conversation he was having previously, but had it in him to put that on hold.

"Ah, Floyd's back!" He said, looking very happy, almost skipping on the spot. "You recovered very well, but I won't hug you. Serge said you didn't like hugs – did I mention how strange that is? Everyone should love a good hug now and then! Oh, I got sidetracked..." Wigglytuff said before turning to the old guy he was talking to – turns out it was that same Armaldo I met just after the expedition. I remembered him talking about how he got Wigglytuff to want to become an explorer when he was a wee child, and must have been visiting his old friend.

"Anyway, Armaldo, this snivy here is Floyd. He fought that grovyle with extreme...well, conviction! I guess your team name proved to be very accurate, hee hee!" Wigglytuff said before Armaldo put up his right claw.

"We've actually already been introduced – just after the expedition." He said, coughing slightly – poor guy, he'd probably be in a retirement home within a couple of years by the looks of things, if they had such things in this world. "Very nice chap, but I didn't see that he'd become a hero who could well be discussed for decades to come! I am most impressed." Chatot really wasn't speaking too much, clearly feeling a bit shouldered out.

"Now I'd give a lot of credit to you Wigglytuff, but it sounds like you don't do a lot of hands on work these days. Has something changed?" Armaldo said in a weary voice. Clearly, even speaking was quite exhausting to him.

"Well, I began to wonder if pure first hand experience was the best way for my guild members to learn, so I decided to not teach as much, just like my dear 'best friend forever' Chatot here." Chatot blushed slightly, and I had to contain my laughter which wasn't easy, but it seems like we were getting onto the topic anyway.

"And is it turning out well for them? Do you do much exploring yourself these days? I've heard that you don't leave the guild building too much. Surely there can't be that much paper work." Armaldo said, sounding almost sad at this.

"I've had to deal with a lot more lately, regulations have become tighter over the past five years." Chatot said, finally deciding to speak, and it was here I decided to chip in.

"Considering we give over half of our earnings to Wigglytuff...er...don't take this the wrong way, but it seems like a rip off if you're not going to be more hands on in regards to actually teaching us." Wigglytuff seemed quite shocked. Not angry, just incredibly surprised – did none of the guild members ever put forward suggestions and complaints? Not even Chatot?

"I hate to say this junior, but I think this snivy here is right. Look...you know how you've asked me many times over the past years to go on an exploration with you, but I keep telling you I can't because I've become old and frail? The reality is Wigglytuff...your past your prime, over fifty years old. Another ten years and you'll be struggling. Please, take some advice for your old master..." Wigglytuff eyes seemed to shrink slightly as his mouth was partially open without any real effort to make it completely open or close as he made eye contact with Armaldo's very strange looking eyes.

"Swap paper work sessions with Chatot. He's very competent, and he'll not make a mistake while you're gone.!" He said with a glance at Chatot before continuing. "Then, every other day, you can do some paper work and Chatot can lead a small group for some outdoor teaching. I really don't want you to regret lazing around during what could be your last active decade Wigglytuff – and clearly, your guild members would thank you for this as well, is that right Floyd?" I nodded, feeling very glad that Armaldo was explaining this instead of me. Wigglytuff obviously deeply respected Armaldo, but probably wouldn't hesitate to shut me down with raw stubbornness.

"...You're right. It has been quite a while since I truly had fun on a day out with Chatot aside. But what if my money runs dry?" Wigglytuff said, which was greeted by a deadpan look from Armaldo as he glanced at the treasure chests that almost decorated his room. "I've seen compulsive wealth holders drive themselves to misery over it. Junior, please don't make that same mistake." I confess, I somewhat had that problem back in the human world, rarely ever touching alcohol not for any moral or health issue, but for financial reasons.

"Understood Master Armaldo!" Wigglytuff said, sounding far cheerier now and after he gave him a hug that Armaldo chuckled at, he took his leave and Wigglytuff helped him up the ladder, which the old man found difficult to do for obvious reasons.

"And now we got a better deal!" I said to myself, watching Armaldo leave. "Say Chatot, where's Serge? Or Dusknoir for that matter, I think I'd like to speak to him."

"Serge is in his room, go speak to him if you like. Oh, and Dusknoir was looking for you but wasn't allowed in while you were hospitalized. He should be back soon though."

"I'll keep a look out for him after I see Serge." I said but I was called back by Chatot once last time.

"And Floyd..." Chatot said before looking away for a few moments and wiping his beak quickly with his wings before giving me his most sincere look. "...Thank you." I nodded, accepting what was probably a disguised apology in my stride as I headed into Serge's room, who was still getting his heroic dues from the guild.

"And the other legend himself!" Loudred yelled as he went to shake my hand enthusiastically he said, smiling extremely widely with his massive mouth as he pat me on the back and put me beside Serge and the others. I smiled smugly as I was showered with even more praise – praise I fully deserved. We talked for almost an hour constantly as I recited the tale of my heroism alongside Serge's and the others, and over time, it's evident I was becoming just as much of an inspiration for them as the guildmaster, even though I should be an even bigger one by now.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Dusknoir had clearly found us and I leapt over the others to greet him, and he looked very pleased to see that I had made a full recovery just about, I was still a little run down and had mild pains all over my body.

"We did it!" I said, almost jumping as Serge followed me to also greet him. "Can't believe I found my true purpose there amongst Dialga's property. This is all crazy shit that's happened to me in the last few months – becoming a pokemon, seeing a god, preventing the collapse of time...it all seems to ridiculous on paper, but it happened!"

"Indeed it did – it was fortunate that you arrived here and put the dimensional scream to use. The last of Drapion's cronies has been arrested, and I have been discussing on his punishment that he should receive." Dusknoir said, but I had to pipe up with my own suggestion.

"Torture, make it agonizing, until he dies! Let's hope he lives for at least fifty years to experience all the pain that the good people can possibly give him!" I said loudly. "I wish I could think of something worse for a crime on a multiversal scale of this severity, but that's sadly the worst I can think of."

"It is likely that I'll get the authorities to leave Grovyle with me so that me an my people in your future can punish him appropriately – he did come from my time, so I think it'd be more appropriate that he should be punished in that time." He responded, explaining everything clearly to me, even though the odd question remained.

"Eh...sure, just make absolutely certain that he suffers horribly for as long as he lives, won't you?"

"As Dialga would see fit!" He said, nodding in agreement, but I came across a sad revelation from this – it seemed likely that he was going back to the future as well, and I might never seen this somewhat old, but inspirational man again.

"...You're leaving soon, aren't you. The only other Dialgan I ever knew here..."

"Unfortunately for you, yes. I shall miss you as well, you have been a tremendous ally to me, and an ally to justice and Dialga himself surely. Still, the gate back to my time will not appear until tomorrow evening – it was fortunate that we brought Grovyle into custody this soon, as contact with those awaiting my return in your future is impossible for the time being. Regardless, perhaps we can go on a casual little adventure today if you would like. Wigglytuff seemed happy to for two to do so."

"Of course!" I piped up, squeaking ever so slightly, something I was occasionally prone to doing in this body, and this time, Serge also seemed enthusiastic.

"I have so many questions about the future you know, think you could tell me all about it?"

"Well, I obviously won't have time to tell you everything, but on the way to Conviction Cave and back, I can definitely share some of the features the future may hold for you. Shall we head out now?" Dusknoir asked us, clearly wanting to leave before it was too late, which I understood fine enough.

"I thought you usually liked to prepare a lot." Serge said. "I took good advice from you, gimme twenty minutes for Floyd and I to get our stuff ready."

"Indeed, I'll wait at the crossroads, I already have my supplies." He said as he left the guild building, shaking hands with many people as he left.

"At first, I thought he looked really creepy. Floating there with his one eye and all that jazz." Serge said as we left the building together, getting showered with more praise, making me feel even better about myself.

"And? Seems a bit rude to judge on appearances – I got the bad end of that when I arrived here from some people."

"Hence why I said 'at first.' I admit, I can be a little judgemental on the creepy looking pokemon, but I'm proven wrong just about every single time." He said as we gathered some food and water to take with us.

"Well it's a good thing I became a snivy and not, say, a garbodor or a shedinja!" We both laughed as we caught up with Dusknoir, trying to calm the constant questioning about his heroism and what the future is like, but I'm pretty sure everyone's curious about the future in one way or another, and the opportunity to ask about it from someone who's been there must be golden.

"Say you two, do you think they'll build statues of us in town and across the island? We're pretty much heroes of legends now and each and every single inhabitant pretty much owe their lives to us, would that be right Dusknoir?" I asked, Serge giving me a somewhat funny look.

"In many respects, yes. Before I left your future, the food shortages were beginning to kick in, and the effort to keep law and order was starting to fail – there's no telling how many lives we saved, and those that'd find a way to somehow survive would likely be living their lives in misery – unpleasant, even if it is vastly preferable to death." Dusknoir said to us, sounding a little bit concerned.

"You explorers are some of the bravest people to ever exist – thrusting yourself into the unknown, not knowing how to prepare for every danger but going through with it anyway. My reputation for knowing this place and it's conditions were not a fabrication however – I did extensive research to minimise the risk of failure and death, and it lead me to Treasure Town, as I feel I could easily win the support of the local community in my mission, more so than the other towns."

"Well you came to the right place!" Serge said happily. "Anyway, so you and Floyd seem to go on and on about this Dialga fellow. Is he an important person in the future here as well as from Floyd's world in the present?"

"Indeed." Dusknoir said, his interest perking up higher this time – I really respected a man with this much knowledge and intelligence and be willing to share it. "Dialganism only became prominent in the last few months where I came from."

"Who started the whole movement in this world anyway? The future looks bright if the people here will adopt the truth into their lives." Dusknoir seemed very happy that I brought this up and leaned in close to whisper.

"I heard it was a snivy who brought the ways of Dialga to these people." And then it hit me right there – my work in helping this world was clearly far from over! But with what seems like a faithful copy of me keeping my friends and family back home happy, then I could spend more time here!

"...I'm not sure if appointing myself as this world's prophet is really appropriate, but...I'm sure Dialga would love his message to be spread to this world! Yes, I will spread Dialganism across the land! I've nothing to hide now, the people across the land revere me – they're bound to listen to me now!" I was almost jumping at this, but soon stopped as the pains came through again – seems like I didn't totally recover.

"Perhaps it should be your next goal while you are here, as I believe it could be you that will be responsible for the spread of the truth in this world. People like you are a rare find, and I am very glad to have met you, and I must say that I am curious to see your world before I die." Dusknoir shuddered slightly. "However, it would likely be impossible. As for other changes in the future, there's not too much – after all, it's only a few years in your future I come from."

"So I guess it's still similar then." Serge said, but I had my own comments to make on this.

"I can't help but wonder if exploration will be much of a thing in the future." Serge seemed to look a little sad at this, probably wishing he was born during the golden era of exploration. "Well, it probably will be, it'll just take a different form. Building huge ships with a large crew to explore the treacherous waters and oceans beyond...maybe they'll bring one of those statues that they are surely planning to build for us overseas to show our contributions to the world!"

"Floyd, calm down. I'm sure they'll give you your statue." He chuckled, but it seemed like my ego was rubbing off badly on him with his subtle frown that formed on his face for a brief second.

"Just saying, if the crisis would have also affected the human world, it makes me the most important human to have ever existed if you think about it. We prevented a slow-burning apocalypse, isn't that right Dusknoir?" He nodded. "Hehehe! And look, we're at Conviction Cave...ugh, getting through the waterfall will be tough with the injuries..."

"I shall assist." Dusknoir said, gently picking me up by the shoulders, and all three of us charged right through the waterfall as Dusknoir shielded the wounds that hadn't fully healed yet, as we landed much better than last time.

"Thanks buddy!" I said, gently hopping onto the ground. "Oh, I just thought of something – if you're just going three years back into the future, then maybe I will see you again, albeit a bit older."

"Indeed we might. I am not from Treasure Town though, but if you're still here, then perhaps we shall meet again. Shall we have a wander then?" We both did as suggested, and it all went smoothly for half an hour. I decided to hang back from the fighting as a whole, still feeling a bit sore as Serge and Dusknoir knocked aside any xenophobic savage pokemon that got aggressive with us.

"I see you're pretty good at fighting." Serge said in admiration.

"Hence why I was chosen to try and apprehend Grovyle. Seems like my age didn't hold me back as much as I had expected, since I had my own doubts of how well I could complete the task, and I will reiterate once again how I couldn't have done it without your help Serge, as well as Floyd's." Everything seemed all fine and dandy until it looked like Dusknoir suddenly panicked for a second, and suddenly spun around and seemed to blast a big shadowy ball right at me.

I barely had time to leap out of the way as it blasted a kabutops that was behind me, clearly trying to sneak up on me to devour my body fluids as he was blasted back heavily and looked severely injured, not that I cared too much, as chunks of rock were blasted off the cave wall. Perhaps I shouldn't have got too caught up in the conversation.

"Fuck me! Dusknoir, would you be more careful?! You could have blasted Floyd there! Are you alright?" He said running over to me. I nodded to let him know I was OK before turning to Dusknoir.

"Many apologies Floyd, I panicked when I saw you in danger from that kabutops." He said, shaking slightly. "Maybe I am getting too old for this, maybe we should just head back..." On the way back, I didn't speak much, as I was a bit too pre-occupied about thinking what the future might have in store for me. Will I be returning back to my world, or will my replacement be there to stay? Thinking of my home-world, there was something home I definitely preferred.

"You know guys, to interrupt your discussion, I was thinking of sharing something about the human world to you, and my hoped for this one. Does it not strike you as odd how everything in this world seems to be solved by a single method?" Serge looked at me in an odd way.

"Is this something that's specific to our world?"

"Nope, it's unfortunately the solution a lot of the time in my world as well, albeit it's not nearly as bad. This all-purpose problem solving solution? Violence. Why, when I think that just about every problem I've encountered, be it my own or another person's problem, I couldn't help but notice how each one was sorted out by beating someone up. I cannot expect evil-doers to listen to morality and reason, but it's at least partially effective where I came from."

"I have likely become a very influential man here, so I have decided that I will try to use my influence to bring about a less aggressive society. I have always dreamed of a world where violence would never be the answer as impossible as that may be, but if I can even get closer to that goal with the help of introducing Dialga into people's lives, then I'll be proud of this world. I may have discovered my talents in violence, but I grow weary of it." Of course, I could always guilt trip them into taking heed of my suggestions, but at the same time, 'violence is never the answer' is sadly one of the greatest lies ever told.

"There will always be those who need to stand up and fight for what is right, but as I may have said earlier – if everyone were a Dialgan..." Dusknoir said, but as I nodded in agreement, Serge looked a little uncomfortable.

"What exactly to you base Dialga's word on anyway? I've never seen it here."

"Books where I live." I responded. "And as much as I like you, you should seriously consider converting, but it's hard to really teach the word of Dialga without The Righteous Tome with me. I seriously regret not getting one to bring here while I had the chance. Even if I'm Dialga's chosen hero, I'm not perfect, and I'd likely distort his word by accident, even with the best of intentions."

"You can only do your best with it, and it'd surely be better than nothing." Dusknoir said. "It's imperative these people learn."

"I just don't think this Dialga worshipping will be for me really – I'd need to see him for myself, and confining yourself to rigid rules like that? You think any rule can match for every situation?" Serge said, continually being critical of my faith. I guess I would just try and spread the word of Dialga alone.

"Until the day comes where we can have a one hundred percent rate of seeing what the consequence of each action will be, we should always stick to his maxims. Besides, they are all quality rules, based on millions of years of knowledge!" I said as we approached Treasure Town in the sunset.

"Isn't one of them not lying? I don't think Dialga would appreciate you always lying about your past when asked about it." Serge said, striking a most dissonant chord within me. My eyes widened for a moment as I thought for a moment.

"It's to protect myself from unfair treatment! I might be confined to an institution if I told them the truth! Dialga permits this...but asks us to avoid exploiting it too much...no, you're right Serge...from now on, if anyone asks, I'll just spill the beans. Besides, would they think bad of the legendary hero of time for it?" I said, grinning, realising that Serge was right in a way. I did wonder how they'd take it though – it the end, it didn't really matter to me too much whether they believed the truth or not providing they didn't treat me like shit for it.

"Actually, another question about this whole Dialga business." Serge said as we stopped in town to have a bite to eat. "So as morbid as this sounds, what's the Dialgan view on what happens when we die? There's been theories that have been floating around since civilization began here pretty much, but each one seems different. A few people have said we get reborn again, sometimes even as a different species, some say we get tortured for eternity if we've been bad and experience paradise if we've been good, but it really makes me wonder who decides such a thing."

"Dialga has warned us against such false hope and lies." Dusknoir said sadly. "There is nothing after we die, and I confess that it is the biggest fear of all to me. Unlike the hellish future that we fought and succeeded to stop, death cannot be stopped – it comes for us all eventually. I wish there was another way, but the truth is the truth."

"I accepted that long ago, bring brought up by my father to believe that you only live one. Obviously, you don't waste that life on stupid shit that you'll regret unlike some people, but I digress. My father gave me these words when I discovered the inevitability of my own death that went along the lines of 'An eternal life robs life itself of any beauty or importance.' He's a wise man my father, and I'm very happy to be his son."

"You seem stronger than I am about this." Dusknoir said. "I am envious of you Floyd, but I should go and make the arrangements so that Grovyle can be taken back to his own time for his punishment. My time in this world ends roughly this time tomorrow, four miles South-East from here where I will be taking Grovyle back with me. Of course, I hope that you two will accompany me there, and it is likely the rest of the town will want to also come."

"Oh we will!" I said loudly. "...I will miss you, just reiterating that for you."

"As will I. I have business to attend to, I shall likely see you tomorrow." He said and floated off, shaking hands with many admirers.

"Well wouldn't that be a good moral for the kids – don't judge on appearances. The man's a living legend in my eyes. Well, want to go to the coffee shop? Pretty sure the guild will be there." And was we walked underground into the coffee shop, another wonderful night followed, with the general public being far happier than before. Even Chatot was very cheerful, hopping around the place instead of his usual walk, and trying to describe how Wigglytuff was acting would be almost impossible. I could really grow to enjoy living here, getting treated like a legendary hero, and with my copy back home making everyone else happy, I think everyone good who was involved in these incidents became a winner.

The next day was just as beautiful. The straw beds never felt so comfy in my life before as I got in in plenty of time, so much so that Loudred didn't even need to wake me up for once. The smiles on everyone's faces gave way to a warmer environment that I truly felt a part of this time round. Maybe smiles really do go for miles. It turns out that this would be the last day off for the guild from what Chatot announced.

I decided to use that time to 'visit' Grovyle in his cell, just to see what sort of inhumane state he was hopefully in. Perhaps Dusknoir was still discussing with Officer Magnezone and the others about getting Grovyle to be punished in his own time line. After all, I hadn't seen him since we fought, so I was curious to see how badly his body got wrecked. I sure hope that he'll be missing an arm or two! Upon arriving at the police station, however, I saw two familiar entities.

"The two stolen Time Gears are right here, I will send for some escorts so that they are returned to their rightful places." Magnezone said to Uxie and Mesprit who clearly came back to collect the Time Gears. "Oh, it's Floyd, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Oh my! Uxie and Mesprit! It's like looking into our origins once again!" I said in a slightly dreamy voice. In the broad daylight, they looked a little less mystical than at their lakes, but it by no means dampened how significant they looked.

"We heard you were one of the people to stop Grovyle. My gratitude and apologies cannot be emphasized enough!" Mesprit said, the voice again seeming to come from within my head. I seriously didn't like this telepathic communication. "Azelf also sends his thanks."

"It was very thankful our gifts were transferred to the local pokemon of this world, as well as this extra-terrestrial being that came to help defend the future as well." I just about squealed in happiness from the praise that I was getting from those who helped found the human race.

"Azelf did say something curious though. While he was unconscious, he still tried to help by amplifying your will to stop Grovyle, but soon discovered that it was unnecessary as both you and Grovyle had the most concentrated wills of anyone he has encountered in all of his life, and we have lived for well over a million years. That being said, we all keep to ourselves usually, so we don't know a lot of people. It was almost scary to him, but what was important was that your willpower was enough to see you through until more help arrived." Uxie told me, hovering a few feet in front of me as if it was treading water without moving, it's eyes still shut.

"I have commissioned the best exploration units to escort you and the Time Gears to their locations. Floyd is still showing signs of injury, so I'll be getting Team Charm instead of Team Conviction." Magnezone said, using electromagnetism to sort through his papers, which must have been magnetized somehow, but my mind was on other things to really think too hard about it.

"Commissioned?! They're useless bastards if you ask me, pardon my language. Exactly where were they when I was risking life and limb for justice when they could have done the job easier. They should be doing it for nothing! No matter, I'll be sure to convince Wigglytuff to do the right thing and make them do it for nothing." Magnezone gave me a rather shocked look. I must have offended some of the big celebrity worship that went on with these people who clearly don't give a shit for anyone but themselves. "Hey, I'm more important than they'll ever be now, and the sooner you accept it...hey, can I see Grovyle for a bit?"

"...He's in that cell, but if you were anyone but yourself, Dusknoir or Serge, I'd have you deal with a minor punishment for the cheek there. Dusknoir will be taking him to the future tomorrow – we talked it over last night." I wandered over to where he gestured, and behind a surprisingly complex security door and walls was the evil cunt himself. He sat in the corner, having his arms and legs tied down by ropes that looked like they were so tight that they almost went right through his skin. His muzzle was also tied shit, presumably to stop him from vomiting seeds from his mouth like a machine gun to those trying to arrest him.

"You cannot flee or hide from justice forever Grovyle! And now look what's happened to you!" I said loudly so that he'd hear me as I peered through the small glass window that you could see him through. "You in horrible pain buddy? Lack of sunlight I see, make you suffer for longer! If it were up to me, I'd have those ropes tied so hard that they'd touch your bones!" He gazed up at me lazily, not looking too impressed.

"You could have killed me! Killed Serge! Brought doom to my friends at the guild, and my homeland! All of them dead or worse thanks to you! But true heroes like me don't let that happen! I hope the conditions in the future for you are even worse!" I said, collecting as much saliva as possible in my mouth before opening the little window to spit in his eye. "A little parting gift from me." I left then, Magnezone looking even more perplexed as I strutted back onto the streets. The evolution crisis was still at large, so I guess that'd be my next action of heroism when I find out the answer to that and solve it with the help of Serge. Still, that could wait for another time as I returned to the guild. Maybe I could get some food there...

"Floyd, could I have a word? In private?" It was Chatot, speaking in his usual squawking tone as he hopped towards me. "Hrm, no one's in the dining hall...good." He said as he closed the double doors and turned to face me, looking quite serious all of a sudden.

"So...you said from where you came from, the 'language of the chatot', the way to remember melodies. You said you were taught it by another chatot there, right?" He asked me, walking up to me and standing a mere foot away.

"Yes I did, why do you ask?" Chatot frowned slightly at this, and it was here where my web of lies finally hit a snag.

"That's bullshit and we both know it. I just found out that no chatot has ever set foot on those supposed distant lands. You couldn't have learned it from one of our kind! I have a feeling you're not who you say you are..."

"How did you find out anyway? I mean, I didn't think anyone from this island has ever been there! Are you absolutely sure?"

"A lost flying explorer trio consisting of three fearows. Turns out they didn't die in a storm, but just never bothered to report back for ages when exploring the lands you said you came from. They took many surveys and confirmed that no chatot has ever been or lived on that continent! Look, I'm sorry if this is coming off as pushy, but I really need to know who you actually are." Chatot was breathing fairly heavily, not looking angry as much as he did stressed.

"But it's..."

"Floyd...just...who ARE you?!" I sighed as I pushed my plate aside gently as I leaned on the table slightly, drumming my fingers and looking away from him to try and think how best to phrase this. I was really hoping I wouldn't be quizzed on the matter this early, but I doubted Chatot would ever let this go.

"You see Chatot...well, yeah, I have been lying this entire time. I had to, no one would ever believe the truth. They'd all assume I was insane, and I couldn't have that! I don't even think I can overstate how batshit crazy it is. Hell, it's sometimes hard for even me to believe!" I probably spoke a bit too loudly as those in the lobby probably overheard. I rapidly drummed my feet on the ground, but Chatot didn't seem to be that affected by it.

"I've seen and heard a lot of really mad stuff. Trust me, I can't say I'll believe you outright on anything that you say, but just know that my belief in you is probably bigger than what you think it is. The world we live in is a pretty crazy place really, just about anything is possible. So run it past me...just who are you?" I swallowed. The crunch time was here, no point in lying or delaying things further, and besides, Serge and Dusknoir believed me – maybe Chatot will to.

"I-" But I got cut off by Wigglytuff suddenly opening the door, with the rest of the guild behind him. I really hope they weren't eavesdropping and came in at this dramatic moment to hear my story!

"Chatot, Floyd! Dusknoir is taking Grovyle back to the future, he's invited the guild and some townsfolk to come with him to say farewell! He really does want you to come!" He said, hopping slightly and gesturing us to follow him. I guess it was a pleasant interruption and allowed me to rethink my words for this.

"Tell me after we arrive back here, ok?" Chatot said as we followed him out, as we walked in what must have been a group of thirty following Dusknoir, holding the tied up Grovyle with strong pokemon holding each limb to ensure that he wouldn't get away. He struggled pathetically regardless, and it seems like other pokemon were spitting on him as well, his suffering making me really happy.

"Interesting..." Wigglytuff said quietly to himself, looking at something in his hand. "Oh my, it can't be! Chatot, have a look at this!" He quickly passed whatever he was holding to Chatot, and he had a similar reaction as they looked at each other in surprise. "How did he get a hold of this?!" He passed it back to Serge.

"So you know something about my relic fragment?" Serge said, being far more wide-eyed than usual, walking backwards while being just in front of out guildmaster.

"Best discussed in private, I'll tell you about it when we get back. Besides, I think we're nearly there." He said before blathering to Chatot once more.

"You hear that Floyd? I might be getting some answers! Why did I simply never think of asking them before! Silly me, but nothing we can do about it now." Serge said, and was about to put it back in his bag before Dusknoir approached us.

"Is that...can I have a look as well?" He said, holding out his large hand. Serge went along with his request and looked at it for a brief moment. "Fascinating...hrm, it does indeed show significance, and I couldn't help but overhear that your guildmaster might know something about it. I don't personally, but it's still a fascinating find." He said, handing it back as Serge put it back in his bag.

"We're here!" Dusknoir announced, reaching a very small clearing in a patchy woodland. There was really nothing remarkable here, and the light breeze itself felt very average, but perhaps the event or whatever we'd be seeing would soon be ahead. "In mere moments, a gate to my time-line will appear, and I will take the vile criminal back into my time for his due punishment!" He said, speaking far louder than normal to ensure his voice could be heard, almost in an announcer style.

"I would urge each and every one of you to stand back in case you get sucked into the future as well, as it will be very hard to return, so for your own safety, take ten steps back." As we did so, the anticipation reached a feverous peak as the chatter between us got so loud that Dusknoir was almost forced to yell. I was just as excited too – I was about to truly witness my lord and master's power first hand! I felt closer to Dialga by merely witnessing this event!

Before long, the clearing seemed to ripple slightly, which must have been the portal to our future appeared. It seemed to be oval in shape as it began to become more opaque as it wavered in front of us, dark grey in colour with blue concentric circles that flowed inwards, making a gentle humming sound that seemed incredibly alien to my ears.

"Pass the criminal to me please!" Dusknoir announced as the bound and muzzled Grovyle was picked up and put into Dusknoir's arms, and he backhanded him viciously, much to the applause and cheering of most of the crowd, including me. "This monster will threaten you no longer! Now let us bear witness to the expulsion of this evil-doer from your time-line!" He said and rather heroically threw him right at the gateway as he very suddenly vanished inside it. The applause and jubilation was so loud it could have deafened us if it lasted much longer.

"Thank you, thank you! However, as unfortunate as it is, I must also return. It has been an honour to be among such fine people as yourselves, building and expanding civilization as we know it, and I can definitely say that in just a few years, you will have made tremendous progress! It has been a privilege to receive your aid in catching Grovyle and I hope my aid to you has been of great service." The crowd once again cheered and clapped, this time my hands were starting to get sore from all the applause I took part in.

"Yet there is one final thing I wish to say before returning, and it is about the two greatest people I have ever met in this town. Their courage and will to fight for what is right in unparalleled, and I wish Serge and Floyd to step forward for a moment." I practically ran over to him, standing by his left while Serge took a more casual stride to his right as we turned to face the crowd of admirers. Truly us three were the heroes of time!

"These two young people right here were paramount in the survival of a wonderful world to live in, and should be an example to all civilians in Treasure Town and beyond. I trust you will heed any advice that they give you on many different matters, and never forget that we all pretty much owe them our lives." I once again beamed at the shower of praise, and this time even Serge was finally bringing it into his being, looking nearly as happy as I was, waving at the crowd.

"So in Dialga's name-" He said before I suddenly felt something hit the back of my legs and next thing I knew I fell backwards right towards the passage into the future. Throughout a shocked and dizzy moment, I could see Serge fall right into it as well, and consciousness was quickly lost in a way that was oddly familiar in a way I couldn't put my finger on. I could only see Serge and Dusknoir faintly as a bizarre, blinding collage of flashing colours streaking past me forced me to shut my eyes as my thoughts descended into a void as I passed out.


	21. Nyctophobia

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 21: Nyctophobia

Roughness. That was all I could feel right now as consciousness started seeping in, as I was reminded somewhat of the time where I woke up on the beach just outside of Treasure Town. It didn't feel nearly as painful though and all I had was a dull headache with the taste of grit in my mouth, tiny little stones on my tongue. The ground on which I lay on jagged ever so slightly at my green, slightly scaly skin as I began to open my eyes to see where I had ended up. This didn't do any good though, I might as well have kept given how dark it was, and I had no idea whether I was outside in eerily windless conditions or stuck in a room of some kind. My brain started kicking into gear as I tried to stand on the rocky ground, accidentally kicking a small stone that bounced into the blackness. Where was I, and how did I get here? It didn't take me long to figure out that I travelled into the future, and that Dusknoir must have accidentally knocked me in. He could have shown more courtesy than to put me in a black room of some kind! If it was him that put me here that is.

It was so quiet here that I suddenly became aware if the sounds my own body was making: Every slight gurgle from my digestive system, each pulse of blood running through my veins, and every breath sounding clear to the point I could make out every single detail of the noise made when inhaling and the feeling in my head and chest when I exhaled. Everything around me felt so still and quiet that it almost felt like it was dead, the very life essence sucked dry from my surroundings, as I took a few steps forward into the dark void. I could hardly even see my feet or the ground I was stepping on, so I took things very slowly, wanting to avoid stepping on any sharp stones that could cut my feet. I stopped suddenly, thinking I heard a noise to my right, but it was probably just the sound of my blood in my body, which was starting to give me cold shivers with its foreign sound. My left foot suddenly touched something furry and warm, and whatever it was suddenly shivered and moved. I sincerely hoped that was just Serge, a friendly voice would do me a world of good right now.

"…Floyd? Please say that's you, please…" It sure sounded like my good friend, and giving a loud sigh of relief, I helped him to his feet. He wobbled slightly; clearly feeling slightly disoriented from the presumed time travel, but soon found himself firmer on his two legs than I did.

"Mind lighting your back so we can see where we are?" I said, breathing a little heavier out of unease as his back stiffened and lit up on fire, lighting what turned out to be a cave covered in the dullest shade of dark grey. It was extremely hard to tell whether it was a natural cave or whether it was dug out by someone, but one thing was for sure – I didn't like it at all.

"That Dusknoir…why, I was so sure he was full of shit." Serge said bitterly next to me as he grabbed by arm to get his attention. "I am kicking myself for not speaking out sooner, but I always felt that he had some other motive. I cannot apologize enough for not warning you about this."

"Now calm down for one fucking second! We can't even be sure he pulled us in!" Serge was clearly not listening and he cut me off before I could continue.

"Oh, and let's suppose for a moment that it was all a big accident and think about this: Why would he have us thrown into this empty cave?! Did you not think of that Floyd? Of course not, because he can do no wrong in your eyes because he's also a Dialgan, right?" He continued, grabbing both my arms, looking me dead in my eyes.

"Serge…" I looked away for a moment, thinking about what he said. "Look, let's just find a way outside. The cave walls are over at these three sides, which leaves only that way…" I said, pointing into the depths. I picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it in that direction to see if it'd bounce off a wall that was too dark for our eyes to see. It took a bit longer than I had expected for the stone to hit something, so perhaps the passage out lead deeper into the planet's crust.

"…Let's just move slowly down." I let Serge and his fiery light lead the way. The surroundings didn't let up with its raw stillness, and the strange feeling of death never left this cave. Each footstep was almost soundless from us as I could see the paranoia in Serge start to set in, as it did the same to me. The strangest thing was that the cave floor seemed to be very flat, unlike what the stone throw told us, and the sense that the very nature of the atmosphere was very askew was only reinforced. Straining my eyes, I caught sight of an end of this cave – a shabby, yet sturdy looking grill door that fit surprisingly well in the narrowing cavern walls, and I began to be eerily reminded of a prison.

"Lemme guess…" Serge said, running up to the door and trying to open it. "Locked, as I suspected. Explain that one Floyd." I had nothing to say about this, but perhaps Dusknoir was locked up somewhere else. I slowly walked up to the locked grill door and gave it a little shake, the bars being extremely close together so it was hard to put my hands through them. Something odd sprung to mind at this point – I don't think this sort of metal was used by the pokemon back in Treasure Town, possibly due to them not knowing how. Definitely the future alright.

"Floyd, think you can cut through these?" Serge asked, looking at the bars closely. "They don't seem too thick, whatever this material is. Seems to be very hard though…"

"Nope, not a chance…" However, I did think of something right there. I couldn't cut through it alone, but with Serge's help…

"Try heating up these bars, I might be able to cut through them if they're softened by fire." Serge seemed a bit confused at first but understood as he started blowing small, but very focused hot flames over the bars. I was glad to be with Serge and the heat and light from his fire, else I'd start feeling sluggish from the cold and darkness even faster. The sound from the cackling flames, however, did not make me feel better, and I swore I kept on hearing other sounds behind those flames, but I just chalked it up to paranoia.

"So when do you think we'll be getting home?" I asked, not thinking that Serge would be as clueless as I was.

"No idea, and it'd depend what you'd count as 'home.'" Serge said, taking a small breather before continuing to heat up the metal bars. "Seriously, what is this stuff?"

"It's some kind of metal. Maybe steel, but you pokemon back where you come from don't have steel in your civilization yet. We must be real far in the future!" Serge kept speaking to me through brief ten second breaks of blowing flames to speak to me, and it seems like it was tiring him out ever so slightly.

"You sound more curious than afraid, and what's steel anyway? I'm assuming that it's common in your home-world, right? Anyway, that's as hot as I can get it." Serge said before backing off as I looked at a few of the bars glow the dullest red in the darkness. I kept looking behind me and past the bars, as I kept on hearing unnatural sounds in the surrounding darkness, and I could not tell whether it was just my imagination getting the better of me or not. I'd say we're alone in here, but the shadow of doubt that wrapped around my brain always made me question.

"Just…just trying not to panic and dwell on this predicament too much…" I said and used all my strength and might in both mind and body to slice at the bars with my tail leaf as a very loud clang sounded as I did so that strangely enough didn't resonate much around the cave walls.

"Ow, fuck!" I said, rubbing my tail after I had sliced once, seeing that I had only cut through two of the bars. Clearly, they weren't well made, but it was still enough to keep us in for the time being. Just who was imprisoning us here? Doubt it was Dusknoir; perhaps he was in a different cell. After all, he was likely unconscious when we arrived in the future as well. Making another cut, a small gap formed, but it was not big enough yet for us to squeeze through with our fairly large heads. This was clearly going to be a war of attrition between us and the door, but a war we would surely win.

"Right, heat the bars up here, and when I cut through them, it should be big enough. Too bad the hinges seem to be well jammed into the rock from what I can see." I pointed at the spot as I saw down to wait, casually looking past the door to see if there was anything in the black void I could see as my eyes were now slowly adjusting to the darkness.

I sat down patiently, tilting my head roughly every ten seconds, squinting my eyes constantly as if I was determined to see something move. I knew fine well that someone must have put us in here, and when we'd break out, we might encounter whoever or whatever done this to us. I suddenly jumped and gasped when I thought something strange crossed my field of vision, causing Serge to also be startled.

"Floyd?! What is it?!" He said, coughing as he turned to look at me.

"…Just some flames sparked a bit." I said, remembering to make sense of what I saw and Serge continued heating up the bars, and it was nearly time for me to cut the rest of the way to our freedom, but it was at that point where I saw something else. A pair of small blue lights came into view ever so slowly and hovered there for a brief few seconds. I wanted to believe it wasn't alive, I wanted to believe it wasn't the eyes of something that wanted us dead or at least apprehended, but I knew all too well that wasn't the case. Thankfully, whatever it was went away almost immediately; maybe we wouldn't have to deal with it if we're lucky.

"Right I'm done…Floyd?" Serge said as he tapped me to pull my attention from whatever that thing was and I chopped a couple more pieces of the bars off. Now we could squeeze through, but that'd still be a bit easier said than done. Serge was a bit smaller than I was so he was able to squeeze through just fine, but while I was able to get most of my body through, my head got a bit stuck.

"Almost there…ow!" I said as I pulled myself through, albeit with some pain on the right side of my head. Touching it, there was a bit of blood I could feel, but nothing to worry about. "Right, now which…" A fast flutter of footsteps sounded that faded quickly down the tunnel of which I could barely see.

"...I think it knows we escaped our prison cell..." I suddenly whispered very quietly and everything returned to a state of dead stillness and the sounds of my body became audible once more.

"...What did?" Serge said, dimming his flames as he shuddered slightly, obviously thinking it'd help hide us.

"I really wish I knew so we'd know if we'd be devoured by whatever it is that saw us or whether we could fight it...no point in standing here, the way out is surely ahead of us." Serge and I stood shoulder to shoulder as we slowly took the slowest and most cautious of steps forward into the unknown. Did whatever spotted us need light to 'see' or was it just as blind in the darkness as we were? Did it already know who we were and what we were capable of? My heart was already a hair's breath from going into overdrive, suddenly accelerating at the slightest unusual noise, including Serge's footsteps that were slightly off. I assumed there was no one behind us, but even now I could envision the cave walls themselves having eyes, unknown entities watching our every move, and waiting.

"Was that...?" Serge whispered and pointed. I couldn't see whatever it was, but by now my eyes were so sensitive to movement that anything that moved that wasn't me or Serge sent spikes of fear into my brain. Serge shook his head and he lead me onwards as I irrationally checked behind me every few seconds, not caring that it'd be almost impossible for someone or something to be tailing us. From my still shrouded vision, I could see the cave seemed to be opening up, and considering how many opening-up caves I've been in since I've become a snivy, felt homely for a brief second. Serge suddenly shut off his flaming back and pulled me into the side of the tunnel, presumably to hide.

"What is it?" I flat-out mouthed at him, hoping he could read me from the movements of my mouth alone even through the trembling I was starting to do. I could now see there was more than one of those things as two pairs of moving dim blue lights were moving around. I guess they were communicating with one another as they made the strangest sounds that only resembled speech in the vaguest way. There was really no way to tell how close they were as their 'eyes' seemed to glow slightly on their own, and anything between fifty and a mere five meters would have been possible. As a guess, they seemed to be slightly bigger than us, presuming that they were indeed eyes and that their eyes were near the top of their body and wasn't some ten foot tall monstrosity that looked like it was designed by Picasso on a bad trip.

"This way." Serge 'said' with no sound as we looked at the rocky ground beneath us, being sure to avoid stepping on or kicking any stone that could make a sound that would spell our doom as we kept to the cave wall as we entered what I guessed was a large chamber. Each step took great focus and under the stress of those things spotting us, suppressing the urge to panic and leg it was becoming extremely tempting. I honestly wanted to cry right there and then, and the overwhelming feeling that we might be spotted and have our lives snuffed out at any second forced me to cover my mouth to stop a whimper escaping my lungs.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die..." I thought to myself, feeling as though I was about to heave up my heart and vomit it out. It was at that moment that a third set of pale blue lights came into view from the far side of my right eye, and I saw them stop and they slowly turned towards the other two entities to us. This was surely it now, we were seen. I decided to stay dead still, maybe it was just casually looking in our direction, not realising that we were there. Worse still, the chamber seemed to curve round by looking at the cave walls a meter ahead of us which would lead us closer to those things, so I seemed to be stumped. Yet I seemed to come across a solution as my eyes looked downwards without moving my head – those stones could be a good distraction, but could I move without being seen?

My eyes gazed over to those blue lights again and I could see the pair of them move back to the others. I only hoped that Serge would catch onto my plan. I picked up one of the stones very quietly and hurled it to roughly where I thought the entrance tunnel was to our cell. Once again, the stone seemed to take an oddly long time to hit something, but the sound as rock collided with rock still sounded, breaking the dead silence in the caves.

"Move." I mouthed at Serge, pointing him where he was to go as we kept our footsteps light in spite of our increased pace. The creatures were indeed tricked by the stone as they scampered very quickly over to the sound, making blood-chilling raspy screeches as they ran. As we pushed onwards we could just make out something to the right that only made me feel worse – a wooden structure with rope. It had to be a gallows for use on Serge and I, and I couldn't help but wonder briefly how the pokemon got such a similar idea for old execution methods to humans. I could still hear those things scampering in all directions behind us, and a way out of this giant room could not come sooner.

I was nudged by Serge who pulled me gently in what must be another corridor of rock as we left those creatures behind. By now our adrenaline-fueled bodies almost caused us to flat out run through the underground, but our steps remained as light as the air, with only the slightest of noise. The scuffling behind us could be heard once more, but at the rate we were travelling at, we'd surely leave those things behind unless they decided to give proper chase. Then I stopped dead in my tracks. The most awful coarse breathing echoed very mildly in front of us as another pair of pale blue lights were seen again, and as much as I wanted to make a u-turn to not have to face this denizen of the darkness, I knew it'd be folly with those others somewhere behind us. I looked around frantically, maybe there was another corridor we could leg it down, and when I saw there wasn't, my legs trembled slightly as panic caused me to stop my quiet breathing and break into hyperventilation.

It suddenly shrieked so loudly it flat out caused physical pain in my head and suddenly charged right at us. I yelled in terror, and was initially too afraid to even think about fighting whatever this thing was, and it was only thanks to the bolder Serge who decided to shed light on the situation by breathing an intense jet of flames in the direction of the monster, seeing as how our cover was blown. I still couldn't quite make out what it was, but it seemed to be dark purple in colour and blended very well in the darkness, but it certainly wasn't immune to fire as it gave another one of those ear-splitting screams as it writhed in the flames.

"Run Floyd!" He said, running past the wailing creature as I followed, boldly attacking it along the way with my tail leaf. Incomprehensible chatter and fast footsteps behind us told me that the chase was on as we hurtled through the endless blackness, only cut occasionally by Serge lighting the way with the occasional burst of flames. It all looked the same, and the feeling of being surrounded slowly started creeping in as I banked on the feeling that they were all behind us. I put one arm in front of me, hoping that It'd stop me from crashing horrible into a wall. My vision became blurred when I felt blood pumping through my eyes, only seeing endless shadow and rock aside from Serge who was a few feet in front of me.

"Straight on!" I guessed, seeing a fork to the left. I heard behind us that we had not lost those entities that were pursuing us, only driving me to run even harder, outpacing Serge. Maybe there was light at the end of the other tunnel, but dismay hit me in the face when a blast of flames from Serge revealed that we had only encountered another grill door – a locked grill door.

"Shit shit shit!" I blurted in panic, but it seems like Serge thought of a solution I had in mind to this. Seeing that the door was slightly damaged at the hinges as if someone else tried to escape, Serge immediately begin to heat them up, much faster than the earlier instance. I could hear them fast approaching from behind so I weighed in all my strength to try and cut the hinge, but only succeeded in cutting them to a partial degree. I screamed loudly as I tried again and the hinge was broken with a loud clang. The other hinge was even more damaged and we managed to bring the door down, but those monsters were almost in sight now, many pairs of blue eyes and sets gleaming sharp teeth almost within striking distance. Was this an empty room? Would we be forced to get into a fight where we were outnumbered and out of our element? Or was this the way out to a free and open landscape? Then a voice sounded that was somewhat familiar, but highly disgusting to hear.

"Hrm?! Who is that?! ...Never mind, we're escaping!" Looking up at the man, I could see it was the scourge of existence itself, Grovyle. I would have sliced his legs and leave his fate to whatever those things wanted, but I was far too distracted with the creatures who were already upon us.

"Need help!" Serge yelled as he tried keeping them at bay with torrents of fire, but he was exhausting himself fast. Grovyle leaped right into action and was preparing another one of those balls of energy stuff in his hands. I couldn't get a clear shot at them at all, so I was left at the back, desperately waiting for a chance to zip right past the. The explosion caused by Grovyle, similar to the attack that maimed me, caused so much confusion among the hostility that I lost all sensibility and made a beeline for the fork in the corridor earlier. I soared over one of the creatures and I thought I escaped until I felt something cut me fairly deep from behind, leaving burning, searing pain on my body.

I cried out in agony, but my legs refused to let me fall as I hurtled down the dark passageway, hoping not to bump into another one of those things. The fighting behind continued, and a few seconds later, heavier footsteps could be heard, which I assumed were Grovyle and Serge following me. The incomprehensible natter behind sounded quite alien, but all was put at the back of my mind as I charged down the fork in the cavern. It needed to be a straight passage to the surface, it had to be! I could never stop unless I hit solid rock! The walls all looked the same, all watching, starting. I started begging for the light at the end of the tunnel, yet that light did not come, even as the tunnel opened up, leaving nothing but darkness on either side. Another chamber, or was it night time?

Looking behind me, I saw that Grovyle had caught up with me, and I did ponder about crippling him. It'd be easy and sudden, slicing at his legs, leaving those creatures to do whatever they were going to do with him. Yet killing a human or pokemon is something is the ultimate crime in the eyes of Dialga, but does it count in this case? I wouldn't be killing them, those things would be, but memory did tell me that taking actions that you know would likely lead to someone's death is also forbidden. A shame really, I would like to hear his blood-chocked cries as Serge and I would flee into the night. Grovyle didn't even bat an eyelid at me as I saw Serge coming out of the tunnels, looking quite exhausted, not being as good a runner as I was let alone that accursed Grovyle.

"They'll not give up so easily, you should keep moving. I wonder why you two were wanted though?" Grovyle said, his voice alone reminding me of my religious duty to bring punishment to those who had done wrong. To my astonishment and disgust, Serge was actually following him! That fucking traitor!

"Woah, Serge, what are you doing?!" I said through clenched teeth in a low voice as I ran alongside him, hoping that he may be out of their vision range in this very dark night.

"He isn't trying to kill us, they are. It's the best option we have." To think he'd sell himself out this suddenly! I sincerely hoped that my best friend in this world would have better moral integrity than this!

"After Grovyle did the things he done, you're still following him?! Serge, I saw you fight your arse of just to defend me! I was touched, really! ...And then you do this. How opportunistic...where is your sense of decency?!"

"And what of your sense of foolishness? I know you like to be a noble moral crusader and fight evil, but you won't be alive to do that any more if you keep up that attitude." Serge said, breathing heavily, struggling to keep up with the fast pace. I found it hard to argue with what Serge said right now, but I'd think of something. I don't know why Grovyle wanted us to come, maybe it was way of thanking us for setting his horrible self free.

"Up here." Grovyle pointed and a dead tree could barely be seen several feet in front of us, which he climbed very quickly. There had to be another way, surely! Nevertheless, I couldn't think of anything, so I decided to follow him up, this very action making me physically ill. After helping Serge up with my vines, Grovyle gave a gesture to remain quiet. It was pure silence once again, though not quite of the purity when Serge and I woke up in the cell, but that silence was broken when we heard a familiar sound of footsteps. Clearly one of them had tracked us here, and I could already see its eyes looking up and down the tree. Grovyle very suddenly dive-bombed right into action as he leapt from the tree and silenced him so quickly I couldn't tell how he did it, or whether it was dead or not.

"Fortunately, these sableyes aren't too much of a threat when they're alone." Grovyle said, climbing back into the tree. Even if that were the case, they sure knew how to make me hurt as I gently touched the gash in my back, feeling some blood on my fingers.

"Huh, so they were just sableyes. Couldn't really tell, I guess that's not as bad as I thought." Serge said, remaining fairly composed.

"But with the home-field and environment advantage..." I muttered before Grovyle spoke.

"Sincerely, thank you for breaking me out, I'm not sure I couldn't have done it without your help."

"You think we done that on purpose?! We simply didn't know the way out! I'd have loved to let you rot there, even if it meant you were to be executed a few hours later!" I snapped back at him, still keeping my voice low.

"That's really too bad, we made a pretty good escape team." Grovyle said, sighing roughly. "Trust me, we'd be stronger together in the endless night until we get back home."

"Ooh, trying to use us to help protect yourself from the forces of justice, eh?! And the endless night, I knew it! Well, Grovyle, I hope your happy with what you've done! Look all around you! You did this! You literally ruined everything! The biggest enemy of Dialga! And I already know fine well that you're probably going to betray...no, you know what, I am sick of your presence, it's making me physically ill! The only reason why I haven't tried to kill you is because my lord and master forbids it, or harming you because Serge will no doubt try to play peace-keeper! Well I hope this horrible little creation of yours backfires and gets you killed! And to think I stopped this from happening too...right, I'm fucking off now – I'd rather die horribly than ever accept or give assistance to you! Even living with letting you free...hrmph!" I jumped down off the tree and started to storm off, trying to contain my desire to scream so loudly in anger that my vocal cords would risk being ruptured.

"...Dialga? Are you..." Grovyle sighed and jumped down. "Well, I'll be heading south. Both of you should go south as well if you want out."

"Then I'm going north! The further away from you, the better it'll be! Come, Serge!" I said as Serge sighed and climbed down from the tree with a degree of awkwardness. "It's a miracle I never freaked out and tried to slice your arm off! You're coming with me Serge! Don't you even _think_ about crossing me!" I glared at Serge firmly.

"For your information, if you tried to attack me, I'd leave you in the state I left you back in Azelf's cave. Perhaps having the sableyes deal with you would slow them down for catching me and interrupting my mission." Serge got between us, just in case another fight was about to break out. It was exactly what I expected, and the reality was, both Serge's efforts and my own combined were not enough to take down this monstrosity. "I wish you luck in surviving here, I'm off back to the past." And with that, he ran off so quickly that he was completely shrouded in darkness in less than a mere second.

"...Floyd, you do realise that was our potential guide in getting back home, right? Back to our time?" I looked at Serge with a slightly open mouth.

"You take me for an idiot?! Of course I knew! I just have the integrity not to use it! You seemed like you wanted to go with him though, even though he beat the fuck out of us both and quite possibly committed the most reprehensible act that any living being has ever done! But I suppose you were just going to use him for your own ends, right? Makes sense mate, you're no stranger to that sort of thing!" It was at this point that Serge suddenly snapped. Clearly having enough of me, clearly too selfish and dense to see that I was right, he suddenly charged at me, throwing me roughly to the ground and pounced on me.

"Floyd! You _will_ calm the fuck down! And before you start going on about this Dialga crap, open your mind to this: I don't care about Dialga, and if the so called 'Deity of Time' even allowed this catastrophe to happen, then he's a pretty shit deity! If you are so adamant in going north when Grovyle clearly said he was going south to go back to our time, then you're going alone!" Serge, his teeth looking so tightly clenched that they looked like they were about to burst right out of his mouth. He got off me slowly and stood upright. "...But I don't want to go alone. I don't know what's out there, and I could really use someone by my side. Please Floyd, don't be an idiot...I'm begging you – come south with me."

"...All right. We'll go south." I slowly got to my feet and stood beside Serge. "But I'm not going with Grovyle, if we find him, we'll make do with just tailing him instead. Also, don't talk like that about Dialga, that doesn't help anyone. It's just...seeing that bastard and this place...oh, let's get back home quickly before this future gets to us both! So...where exactly is south? I know Grovyle ran in that direction, but it didn't even seem like he knew where..." It was at that moment when I heard the same horrible slavering and erratic 'speech' from earlier. I guess hanging around only a short distance outside the dungeon was a really stupid idea.

"I guess we should run that way regardless!" I said as the hollow screeches sounded once more from almost all directions except the one we were running in. Their eyesight didn't seem to be fantastic in the dark, but still leagues better than ours, and while they didn't seem as threatening out in the open, it wasn't a fight I wanted to enter. Looking back for a brief second, the faintly glowing gem-eyes seemed to almost be swarming, I had no idea whether there was just two or three of them, or a miniature army! Their twisted diction sounded like they were saying 'they're there' over and over and over. What did they even want from us?! Serge relit the flames on his back to give us a bit more vision in this dead night, showing a faint outline of our relentless pursuers and revealing even more assailants trying to cut us off from the right.

"Veer left!" Serge yelled as we did so, but given all the running we had done, exhaustion was starting to seep in as our bodies were starting to feel drained, but our will to survive remained even stronger. Could our attackers run forever? I had no idea, and seeing a sturdy tree that came into vision just a short distance away from us, I had an idea to try the tactic that failed when we were fleeing from the manecrtric pack. I'd make sure it'd work this time, I had to be strong!

"In front of me Serge!" Serge looked a little doubtful, but I'd make it work for sure this time. After I caught sight of a strong looking branch, I sent my vines up, held Serge from behind after he put out his fire and pulled up, focusing all my body strength into making sure we'd be up in that tree. If they tried to climb up, we'd have an easier job fending them off. The pain was staggering as I pulled as our feet became suspended in the air, but almost guaranteeing heavy shoulder injury was worth it to survive. Yet as hard as I tried, I simply couldn't keep a firm enough grip on Serge as he slipped through my grasp and landed some distance in front of me as I landed on the tree branch. Oh, what have I done...

Serge, seeing that there was no chance to get up the tree, was forced to continue fleeing. I would have leaped down and join him at his side, but it was already too late as I saw the sableyes running beneath me, some on two legs, others running on all fours. Did they see me escape in the tree, or did they think I fell in another direction? As much as it disgusted me to admit this to myself, I could not help Serge at all in my situation. I watched helplessly as I saw his body vanish into the night, leaving only the flames visible. I knew I wouldn't deserve forgiveness from Serge if he survived their attack, but given how I couldn't see any faintly glowing shapes left, maybe I could try to find Serge unhindered by those creatures.

I gently climbed down, remaining very silent, just in case one of them was waiting for me. The dead grass felt coarse on my feet, each step I took making a very faint crunching rustle. Peeling my eyes and tuning my ears, I could see nothing potentially hostile, not that I could see or hear much. I couldn't even see the moon or the stars in the sky, and only the faintest, dullest greys ever broke the pitch black. Being slow and careful might not be an option or I might lose Serge forever even if he did survive, so I had to make my way quickly over the lifeless fields that I soon found myself on. I slowly began to feel weaker and hungrier, being deprived of light, and I knew that unwavering determination would only take me so far. My body wasn't an eternal battery of energy after all, and in the distance, I saw Serge's flame go out, but I had faith that it wasn't him taking a dirt nap.

The mad rasping began to get fainter as I began to push through the thickening graveyard of a meadow, bristling noises becoming impossible to avoid as the dead turf almost reached up to my nose. Tracking their movements was almost impossible by now, and I just hoped that Serge hadn't changed direction. My eyes had further adjusted to the darkness, but all I could see by this point were several shades of grey, and the only thing I saw with any colour at all was fire. The footsteps I made seemed to come from all around me, I knew they were out there, stalking and waiting. Surely they wouldn't have given up on slaughtering me that easily, whatever the reason.

My breathing became heavier, no longer able to keep it quiet since my body felt like it was on my knees, begging me to do anything for more oxygen. I'd jump to try and get a better view of what was ahead, but I'd get an additional five to meters of vision at the absolute most. Eventually, I decided to stop for a ten second breather and get my bearings and think for a second what I could do about the situation when I caught up with them. Serge and I would be slaughtered trying to fight them all at once, so we'd surely have to try and lose them somehow. Wish I knew how, their stamina seemed endless!

I began pushing through once more, my steps sounding more erratic than ever. They were all my own footsteps, right? I ignored my building paranoia as I kept up a firm pace, hoping this dense field would make way for something else, given I haven't been able to see anything except dead grass for quite a while. I heard the same erratic pattern of footsteps again and it was then I stopped immediately and listened out. There! I heard something from behind and looked in that direction. I still couldn't see anything aside from thick grey lines endless black as if the whole field embodied a giant darkened zebra. The rustling stopped on the second I turned round, even though I tuned my ears right into it. It couldn't be the wind, the air was as static as it was back in the underground prison. I took a few steps backwards, hoping it was my imagination.

Eventually I turned around and ran right through once more, keeping my head down, as it pushed aside all obstacles. Both pairs of feet sounded again, and I simply couldn't take it any more – I had to give myself the peace of mind that nothing was there, or at least see exactly where and what it was. I hacked away, sending many sharp leaves in the direction where I thought my stalker was. A lot of the grass was cut, but I could see nothing except a very swift movement. I couldn't make it out, but I assumed it was a sableye. It only made sense that at least one of them would wait behind to try and get me. I had no idea where it exactly was now, but I was pretty sure it knew exactly where I was. I was sure I'd fall prey to a sneak attack from an unexpected angle if I stayed to try and take it on, and without Serge to light the area, it only made matters worse.

As I turned to run once more, a sudden rustle and a ghostly crackle sounded to my left, and I had to thank my instincts that I veered right as it suddenly landed, slashing the air in which I occupied a second ago. With what seemed to be with a claw, enlarged and darkened by the creature's power. It made a hollow, eerie swiping sound as it did and I wasn't sure if I'd still be standing if I was slashed by it. It didn't hesitate to strike again and followed up immediately, forcing me to dive to the right to avoid another incapacitating strike. It zipped out of sight once more, but not long after it did so, I suddenly heard a familiar scream some distance in front of me. Serge.

Sprinting towards the sound of my friend, I heard more screaming and jets of flames. Behind me, I could hear my assassin give chase, sounding like he was saying my name over and over whilst choking on its own saliva. The field gave way to trees as the grass thinned out and from here, I could get a view of Serge who had clearly had enough of running and was trying to fight back. The streams of fire he shot revealed several sableyes, yet any details were still hard to make out, even with a couple of the trees set alight by his constant fiery assaults. It was clear it wasn't going to end well for the poor cyndaquil, but as I ran up to try and assist him, he seemed to explode in fire and even lava by the looks of things, similar to his tactic of trying to take out Grovyle.

The shorter grass and the tree carcasses near by stood no chance as they all started to erupted into flames, starting what surely would be an inferno. If the sableyes didn't get me, the smoke and fire would surely snuff out my life if I stayed here. Serge seemed to have cut them all off, as many of them tried to run round to get him, and I would have called out Serge's name to get my attention but given how his pursuers would turn on me, it'd be the equivalent to signing my own death warrant. One of them screeched so loudly after being burnt horribly that it made me recoil for a moment in pain. At least with the forest ablaze, I could see the one attacking me far clearer, albeit through a red filter from all the flames. Now it no longer had the environment to his advantage.

"Assassinate this!" I said through gritted teeth while barely opening my mouth as I turned on my pursuer who leaped at me, trying to strike me again to which I responded with a heavy slash from my tail leaf. Both my tail blade and its enhanced claw clashed, causing us both to stagger slightly. I recovered the quickest, or so I thought as I went to slash at the sableye again, the wildfire reflecting brightly off his eyes, but then the unexpected happen. He seemed to sink into the ground in the form of a shadow, and quicker than I could react, the shadow very swiftly moved behind me and before I knew it, it covered my mouth from behind with one hand and standing firmly on my tail, causing panic to shoot through me, only amplified by that same crackling sound, and it was then that I knew what was to come next.

As soon as it tried to rake its shadowy claw across and into my throat, I managed to catch its arm in both of my hands. It moved its wrist, trying to reach my throat with its ghostly aura. It slowly entered my skin, causing a strange shuddering in my nerves that seemed to sap my strength, forcing me to lock my arms in position so it couldn't dig itself in. Yet the surrounding conflagration seemed to be just the thing my body needed as the leaves absorbed the light, giving me the strength to hold on, but I needed more energy to escape this potentially lethal hold on me. My oversized nose also came in handy, meaning it couldn't block my nostrils to suffocate me, but it was at this point I figured out how I could escape.

My arms glowed green as I began to absorb energy from the sableye into me, and the progress he was making to try and cut into my throat stopped dead and was soon reversing. The flames around me grew more intense but it didn't stop me as I was able to push the interloper off from me as it gasped for air with its choked-sound breath. It appeared far less hostile and threatening by now and it was too slow when I cut it down with a heavy strike from both my leaves, causing it to fall to the ground in a state where it'd be unable to continue its pursuit. By now, all darkness was dispelled and I could see very little but fire and smoke by now, all other traces of life had vanished. Seeing a possible exit, I dashed with my head down to try and avoid breathing too much smoke which by now caused everything to be a blur of red, orange and yellow.

The sound of crashing wood was happening more times than I could count as I feared that I too would collapse like the tree right next to me did, falling a few feet in front of me. I felt like a rat in a maze of death, and each turn would greet me with thicker and thicker flames, and I started fearing that trying to leap through the fire would be a choice I'd be forced to make. Could Serge's desperate actions be the end of me? I stumbled, the sheer heat making me dizzy as I struggled to get my bearings. I felt sick, I could throw up from this, but I had to keep going. I had no intentions of dying to any fire, spoke or any sableye! Each possible way out lead to a dead end, yet each dead end lead to more possibilities. I soon discovered this when I had to double back and saw that the flames had died down somewhat on the dead grass, to which I soared over with mild pain and a horrible landing due to each and every part of my body feeling assaulted from all manner of injuries and illness.

Right then, another sableye pounced seemingly out of nowhere, jaws wide open, looking like it was going to bite my neck and puncture my throat, leaving me to die of too many causes to count by this point. I had no time to try to slash at it as I instinctively tried to swipe at it with my right hand, as useless as it'd be. Useless, however, is not the word I'd use though as it screeched as it was sent to the ground next to me, my hand feeling quite strange and darker in colour. How did that happen? I didn't question it as we both got to our feet, and I was ready to get this one out of the way too, until it was blasted by a torrent of flames to my left.

"Serge!" I said, coughing and gagging up some of my stomach contents, not that there was even much there. He turned to look at me, clearly not finding the heat as dangerous.

"Floyd!" He said and grabbed my arm. "I see a way out, we're almost safe now!" He said, briefly pulling me in the direction of refuge before letting me run. By now I could barely see any details, only running in the direction that looked the least orange. My body was begging to collapse, it had suffered more than enough today but my mind was more powerful as it ordered each and every muscle to pour everything it had into escaping. I felt like I was falling with each step, constantly stumbling as my eyes watered but shortly, the environment felt less red and felt less hot, as it made way to darkness once more, something I'd never thought I'd be glad to see.

I tried to speak, but my body kept trying to expunge my stomach contents, even though there wasn't anything in there any more. Not even a single word could escape without my shaken frame gagging. I merely looked at Serge, and even though he looked roughed up from the detail I could make out, he was still firm enough to support me.

"Floyd, I'm truly sorry, that was all my fault man! I almost got you killed there! My best friend killed! By me!" I'd never seen him look this guilty, this miserable. I looked back at the raging fire that Serge had started, lighting up the pitch-black sky somewhat, showing the shadows of unmoving clouds. "I know that you disprove of forgiveness but...oh, it's not the time! Here, I'll get us to safety, I don't think they'll be following us any more, I'll keep you safe, I promise!"

It looked like he was crying a bit, but I was starting to feel better already. The smoke may have ravaged my throat a bit, but now that I was free of it, I felt as though I could recover. With no way to tell where to go, we set out in a straight line, ploughing through another empty field that didn't seem quite as dead as the last until we eventually reached a road at this point. The path was abandoned and empty, which although it's not something I usually liked, I was glad to experience being alone with Serge, without this future's inhabitants trying to kill us.

"Serge..." I said with a very hoarse voice. "...I need to to lie down...food...lot's of food...and water." Was all I managed to say.

"We'll get some, there has to be at least something out here we can eat or drink, else there'd be no life at all...we should find a fairy hidden spot though f we can, such as...hey, a wooden sign post!" Serge helped me over to it to have a look. He reignited his back to shine light on it, and it showed that we were heading in the wrong direction the whole time.

"So south is to the left of where we are...huh...oh! Treasure Town is five miles to the south! Must be en-route then. I knew Grovyle had no idea where south was and just needed to figure it out! Look, those may even be his footprints on the muddy side here!" He pointed as he lit it up, but I couldn't really tell. They could possibly be though, that's for sure.

"I can't...make it that far. Need..." Serge knew exactly what I needed though, but a hug probably wasn't one of them as he embraced me.

"Don't worry, I promise I'll find food and water and give it to you! ...I just want your forgiveness Floyd." With the forest still burning in the background, I began to wonder what we'd find in Treasure Town. Would it be a relief of a homecoming, or would it also be horribly tainted like the rest of this dead world we've seen? But whatever it was, it surely had to be better than this, and as much as I criticized the pokemon world, I was begging for life back at the guild. Oh dead future, I bid thee a most unfortunate welcome as I came across the cruel reality that I was not the grand hero of time I thought I was.


	22. Homecoming

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 22: Homecoming

Hobbling alongside Serge, the burning forest behind us seemed to still be burning, yet the flames did not seem to flicker nearly as much, and it seems like at this rate, they'd just seem to freeze on the spot. It must have been quite a few hours we've been awake for, and I had not fully wrapped my head around this place having a never-ending night. Maybe it was still just night time and we'd see this planet's star peeking over the horizon in no time at all! My body still felt horribly wracked from what I put it through, and I hoped to find shelter soon.

"There's a small cut-off path here. It's gravelly, so there's no risk of footprints." Serge said as he lead me over, the stones a little painful on my feet, but it was minor compared to the throat pains, which felt like someone had poured acid down it. Shortly, we came to an unoccupied bench, looking fairy untouched by all this chaos and isolation as it stood there under a tree with branches hanging so low they almost touched the ground. I could sure pass out on there for a few hours, which was just what I was going to do.

"You think this'll be safe?" Serge asked me as I hauled myself onto the bench. Looked like it was designed for bigger pokemon than myself, and Serge had to help me up given I was not in good condition at all.

"Safe enough...besides, I can't walk much further without food or rest, and you'll only go so far by carrying me." I spoke incredibly softly to avoid causing searing throat pains. "I'm just gonna lie here while you get food, watery food if you can." It had never really occurred to me how one would get food in an environment as this, and I began to fear that Serge's objectives were going to be futile.

"I'll do my best. I'll make sure to be back in, let's say, three hours. Hope resting does you good." He said, looking uneasy. "Keep it together Serge, you're an explorer, you don't get lost, you can retrace your steps just fine..." He said to himself out loud as he vanished into the darkness. The bench felt oddly comfy by now as I rested my head on it, the wood feeling nice and soft against my body. I never considered how delirious my thoughts were as I drifted off into sleep.

My restless mind kept throwing the most awful visions at me during my dreams, all relating to something – Serge dying in horrible manners. One where Grovyle beheaded the poor bastard in a single swipe, leaving his terrified head staring at me at my feet. Others included two sableyes ripped open his guts, throwing his organs away like disposable junk with shrill cries as they danced in his blood. 'It was a dream' I kept telling myself, none of this was real, maybe the whole affair earlier wasn't real either! It made no sense, we recovered the Time Gears from Grovyle! I refused to believe that the future was unalterable, as 'the future is what everything makes', a phrase coined Dialga himself, and I'm part of that 'everything', with a small degree of agency in what goes on in life. I also dismissed these horrible dreams as merely dreams and not premonitions – Serge wasn't here, and his presence was required to make them happen. The rest of the sleep was a little more relaxing though, the prospect of food for my empty stomach being a far more pleasant thought, imaging myself back at the guild with all the food at dinner time. I sure missed that.

"Floyd?" I heard a friendly voice say as Serge nudged me awake, smiling at me, carrying quite a lot of fruit with him, mainly apples. Wonderful he could find some wet food, I was gagging for a drink too. "Good to see we're both doing better than before, thankfully I never bumped into any trouble, but I did find something very strange with a stream I found and the landscape in general. I'll show you after you're done eating, it's only a short distance off the path." I hungrily started munching away at the apples quickly, not bothering to take my time or ration it whatsoever. I was starved of all energy, I needed more, I needed lots!

"Hey, leave some for me Floyd! I did get them after all." Serge said, chuckling slightly, clearly trying to remain in positive spirits and celebrating any small victory in these bleak times. Wish I could fool myself as much as he could.

"It's dark, and if it's always dark, I'll be eating a lot. I can't photosynthesise here, so my small appetite is way gone." Swallowing still felt arduous, but it was all at the back of my mind when I hastily started on the second apple. Serge sat beside me with his apple and nibbled away at it more cautiously.

"If I may ask a question Serge..." I asked, looking at him.

"Go ahead, is it something serious?" He seemed slightly concerned, opening his eyes a little wider than usual, revealing massive pupils, brought on by the darkness.

"Yeah, now I'm not getting on at you too much hopefully, but why did you decide to burn the forest when you were so reluctant to when we were chased by the manectrics? Was it on purpose?" Serge rubbed his hands together while looking at them, looking guilty again.

"To think I almost killed you...well, truth be told, it was the first time in my life that I truly thought I was going to die, even after all the exploring stuff we've done. I could see the end myself, being ripped apart by those shadowy creatures. I was truly desperate then, and even the guild's code didn't even matter to my any more. It might worry you to hear this, but in that moment, I was prepared to kill each and every one of them if it meant surviving. I feel really sick thinking about it now, but at the time, it was pure primal instinct." I wasn't even going to hide my concern hearing this come from the friendly Serge I knew as I frowned at him.

"Primal instincts...I'm disgusted by them personally, I believe we should have left those behind, leaving only rational thoughts to make sensible decisions. In a flash of raw, animalistic instinct, you could kill someone, much like you may have done to the sableyes. I would say that these decisions I make were mostly from Dialga's infinite wisdom, but you're probably sick of hearing about it." I said, about to finish off my second apple.

"So what I can gather Floyd, this Dialga wisdom stuff...it seems very rule orientated. Are you sure these rules can cover every situation?" He asked, and I had been answering this question to critics of Dialgism for many years before becoming a pokemon, so I gave the exact same response as I gave each of them.

"In one hundred percent of all situations, no, but..." Serge interrupted here.

"Do you have no real faith in your conscience?" His question flowed nice into what I was about to say.

"No." I answered honestly. "No, I do not have too much faith in what I personally feel is right or wrong. You see, where I come from, and the pokemon here as well presumably, what everyone feels is right or wrong personally is going to be different for each person. Therefore, they can't all be right, but surely someone has to. Can it be a human or pokemon? No, we are all fairly heavily flawed, and in my world, great atrocities have been committed over what some humans thought was 'the greater good.' The death of many millions of people has happened on numerous occasions from people doing what they thought was right. It may be obvious to be or you that the acts are reprehensible, but to them, they might see themselves as noble messiahs. It is this that Dialga speaks against, he recognizes that any morals that come from people are going to be flawed, so he sent his prophet, Ivan Nazar, to send down his story with a guide to living a morally righteous life, with rules to prevent misguided massacres among other heinous acts from happening. Too bad that not even twenty percent of the world follows the word of Dialga..."

"But what of really specific events? Or of the bigger picture in some cases, such as a man who is about to kill an entire family? Surely killing him would save more lives?"

"'The bigger picture', 'in the long run', and of course, 'the greater good'...all deadly phrases, possibly responsible for a lot of the evil in the world. Wouldn't surprise me if Grovyle was one of those sorts who think we're all better off dead or something like that. What about the little guy who gets screwed in the process? Except in this case it seems to be everyone. You see, Serge, this is why a world governed by rules and order will always be preferable, and as we can see, any form of order seems to be lost here. I'll be honest, Treasure Town will probably be a horrific shadow of its former self, just warning you now." I said, finishing off my second apple, keeping my soft tone of voice.

"Now Floyd, we can't be sure just yet. Just try to be a little more positive, it won't help being stuck in the mud about it." Serge said, looking like he was wanting to head on. So did I, but I needed another minute to feel like I was energized enough.

"I'm not being stuck in the mud, and trust me Serge, we have both done fantastic jobs about staying positive given how bad things could be here so far. I mean, look at us, just talking like this in a perpetually dark wasteland. Now, you said you were going to show me something...hopefully it's a stream or something, I need a drink badly." Serge nodded as I pushed myself off the bench, still feeling highly rough from what I went through earlier, bit I could walk fine as we left what I guessed was an abandoned park and across the path. The dead stillness was unrelenting, and the overall atmosphere was really no different than back in the dungeon, minus the slight sense of claustrophobia. The trees we past looked alive this time, and I was really wondering why they were surviving without sunlight. Maybe there wasn't an eternal night, or this whole time thing was beyond my comprehension.

"The stream's just ahead, it'll blow your mind, trust me. Just try not to panic or freak out or anything, it's the last thing we need." Serge said, quietly, leading me through the bushes, hoping we wouldn't disturb anything. Looking at the tree to my left, I saw a low-hanging branch, the leaves covered with dew. An ordinary sight in most cases, but upon looking at a couple of the leaves that seemed to be dripping the dew off, I could see something very odd about the dew. I had to blink twice to see and confirm a couple of droplets of water suspended in the air just below the top of the leaf.

"Serge, come see this. I think this proves my fears." I said, shuddering suddenly. Serge gazed over and it was clear that he had seen this. "It gets worse, doesn't it."

"You'll see." Serge said and lead me out of the patch of trees and pointed. I had to get a little closer to see what he was pointing at, and I first thought it was a stream until I could see that the water was dead still, so I assumed that it was a very long but thin puddle. I got closer to see what Serge was pointing at in particular, thinking it was something strange at the bottom, but it turns out my initial suspicions were correct – it was indeed a stream, frozen in place, yet having nothing to do with ice. Was it a funny colour? I could hardly tell given almost everything I saw was in shades of grey since it was so dark, but I could see the uneven surface of the water as it seemed to pay no heed to the laws of gravity.

"Frozen in time..." I muttered to myself as I touched the water as it started to flow round my fingers, my presence kicking the flow of water back into motion, but it was only the area a short distance from my fingers that was effected as I saw the flow of water in the middle of the stream slowly grind to a halt about a meter away. As I expected, lifting my finger caused the rest of the stream to freeze in time once again.

"It's safe to drink, and it sounds like you really need one." Serge said as I took handfuls of water and gulped them down, helping to cool my irritated throat. It was such a relief to finally be able to drink, so much so that I wanted to dip my entire head in the water. It tasted fairly normal too, which was quite surprising giving our dire location.

"Serge, what do you think happened to our assailants? I mean, you don't think they're dead, do they?" I asked, but while compassion was the last thing I wanted to show someone who wanted me dead, I'd hate to live with blood on my hands.

"Who knows? Well, if they did die in the fire...they had plenty time to run if they didn't continue to attack us." Serge said, suddenly changing his tone to become more assertive, chilling my blood for a split second.

"I don't hear much guilt in your voice Serge. Look, I hope we permanently crippled those bastards, but the prospect of us being killers, murderers even...I...I purposefully tried to wound one of them so they could no longer give chase. I could have indirectly killed him if I rendered him unable to escape the inferno!" I said, digging my fingers into the earth upon my horrific revelation. "Dialga will surely be condemning me as I speak!" I looked at Serge about to object, but it had seemed like he had finally understood my devotion to the lord. He looked thoughtful, stroking his head roughly, clearly thinking of the right words to say to my distraught face.

"There are some very, very cruel people in the world, Floyd – you are not one of them, even if you are incredibly stubborn." He smiled slightly. "I know these rules given by Dialga are extremely important to you, and while I don't know these laws personally, it's not like you meant or intended for them to die. Why, they might have made it out alive – I saw a few of them tail off and look for a way out. I don't think they're that determined to kill us, whatever their reason was for doing so. I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, you didn't do anything wrong, given the circumstances."

"I can see your fallible consciousness told you that. Just because you don't think I did anything wrong doesn't mean I actually didn't do anything wrong. Yet, you have a point,by sheer coincidence. I did not intend to kill, it was not a full breach of the law. Still, I was obscenely reckless using such force – I should have maimed his arms and hands instead so he'd still have his legs to escape. Do not mistake this for compassion though, I hope something truly horrible happens to them, just not as horrible as death." I quickly allowed my words to sink into Serge's mind as I took my last drink and stood up, repeating to myself that I wasn't a murderer in a focused mantra, attracting funny looks from my friend.

"I wonder if anyone else was locked up there back in the caves? Seemed like a huge place." Serge asked as we rejoined the road to Treasure Town, giving me yet another bad revelation – there was only so many I could take!

"Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit! Dusknoir! He's probably still there! He must have fell unconscious during the time travel incident as well! Serge, we can't just do nothing!" I said in a very hoarse whisper, not really wanting to shout, given I still wasn't sure what was lurking in the darkness.

"We probably couldn't find the dungeons if we tried, and even if we could, Dusknoir probably already escaped. It didn't exactly have the best security, and if we could get out, so could he. He probably blasted the doors open himself. Please, Floyd, stay focused and try to understand that it's a mission that can't be practically done." He said, pretty much yanking me back towards the road. "Besides, how do we even he wasn't behind this anyway? Maybe we did something to really annoy him, and he set all this up on purpose for us? Would make sense considering we saw Grovyle locked up but not him."

"Serge...just shut the fuck up. Please." I said, my voice suddenly becoming very flat. I wasn't going to spare a thought for such conspiracies, but as much as I hated the idea, Serge did have a point in the former part of his little speech: Dusknoir probably could have escaped, and finding him if he did would almost be impossible, but I wasn't going to verbally admit it to him. "It's really a shame, if Dusknoir were with us, he'd know how to go back to the present, or the past, depending on perspective. Let's just go with our original plan, it's the best we have quite frankly."

"Don't worry Floyd, this'll just be a temporary struggle, we'll get home, I promise." Serge said, clearly wanting to abandon the topic of Dusknoir as well. The road seemed to be just as empty as it was earlier, and walking down it was another exercise in traversing the endless black. Our surroundings were void of sound aside from our own footsteps, but the ever pressing suspicion that we were being watched never left me. I was starting to look round so often that it would likely cause neck strain, and I began to think about the sableyes again. 'I am not a murderer, he escaped' I told myself again, but when I gazed back at my hands, bright red blotches and streaks had appeared on them when I wasn't looking that pierced the monochrome environment. I gasped loudly, causing Serge to join me in the spike of fear, and yet, I could feel nothing on my hands. I instinctively gave them a shake as I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, they were clean once more, save for a bit of dirt that was there before.

"Floyd?!" Serge said in a raspy whisper as he looked round at me. "What was that?!"

"...Nothing..." I said, holding my head in my right hand. "...It was nothing. Just thought I saw something very odd on my hands. Think we can move faster? I just want to get to Treasure Town ASAP. Three miles according to that sign." My voice was rather faint as I came to grips that it was a hallucination I saw. I'd be thinking 'just a hallucination', but why was I hallucinating? Something in the water, or was I so feeble minded that the stillness of the dead planet was already affecting me this badly.

The path was very straight and it seemed like there was no end to it, no variation, and no way to tell how close we were. The monotony was broken up when a glassy eyed creature, a zangoose, walked right by us at a quick pace, not even glancing at us – maybe it didn't even notice we were there. It shuffled behind us back into the endless night, giving a dull moan as he or she did so. At least it wasn't hostile, unlike every other sentient being we encountered so far.

"Just leave it alone, it didn't attack us this time...I'd like for it to stay that way." I said to Serge who was still looking in the direction in which it travelled. The hard tarmac gave way to a familiar dirt path which Serge and I had walked many times on brighter days, adding slight homely comforts to our quick march, but I was still fearing that our home might not even be recognizable any more. Not that we'd be staying there for long, given Grovyle just said he was heading south to go back to our time, which was all that we were going on at the moment. We couldn't afford to rest too much at all.

"I think we're almost there!" Serge said, breaking into a run as I kept up behind him as he lit the way forward. Hopefully it wouldn't incite any violence from some nearby nut-case who mistook the fire as a form of assault. "Hopefully we can get some torches at Kecleon's shop for you to have."

"If they're still around that is." I must say, I did miss the view given by the late afternoon sun when walking back from an assignment where we could see almost the entire bustling town. Even as we approached the first building as it came into sight, there was still nothing but silence aside from the sound of our shuffling footsteps.

"OK, so this is the day-care centre...this was usually busy given a lot of people here work outside of town...and I don't hear a thing. Serge, come round with me, I'm taking a closer look." It was very hard to make out any colour on the building at all unless Serge was standing right next to it, the shades of pink only occasionally piercing the endless grey. The sight we saw once we reached the door – or lack thereof – wasn't a pretty sight. The door was cruelly ripped off its hinges as it lay just two meters from the frame, and as I dared to take nervous footsteps inside, I could now see entire place seemed ransacked.

"...Revolting...I feared that this might be the case." I said sadly as I looked around to see that everything that was of any survival value was gone. All food, all water, leaving nothing but the plainest furniture that you probably couldn't even give away in modern Scotland and the shabbiest of toys, one lying there with an uncomfortable looking smile on its face.

"Is that everyone gone...? No..." Serge's face fell, his mouth opened ever so slightly as he began searching the place. "I even remember being here a couple of times when I was only two years old, when my parents visited this town. Parents..." He gasped loudly, suddenly panic-stricken and bouncing in fear.

"Floyd! What could have happened to them?! Or the guild for that matter?! They're strong people, both in mind and body, they'll surely be hanging on just fine. We'll find one of them, they have to be able to tell us more! We're heading to the guild!" Serge roughly grabbed me by the arms as I took a journal that was left lying on the ground and I was dragged outside until I began running with him. The guild was just across the street, but once more, the town seemed to be almost deserted from what little I could see, a tragic ghost of its former self. The torches were not lit outside the guild as it usually was, and it seemed to be closed for the night, as long as that night may be.

"So, are we just going to ask if we can come in?" I asked, clenching my hands to help keep my cool. "I can probably get through our room window by lowering myself with my vines if needed." It was soon apparent that it didn't matter, for we already heard something from inside the building, and a voice spoke.

"Hrm...I recognize that voice..." He said, and I identified that it was Wigglytuff. Sure, he may not be the most rational and sensible one, but I was just glad to hear that he still sounded like his normal self. He suddenly jumped up to the ground floor and he opened the portcullis for us, looking very surprised to see us, but absolutely joyful at the same time, greeting us with a crushing hug.

"Oh, I have not seen you both in months! Welcome home you two! Welcome home!" On second thoughts, he seemed to be a little too much like his old self. He didn't even make any comments regarding the whole eternal night situation, but Serge and I complained anyway as we climbed into the lower floors were I started to get a whiff of a mildly rotten smell.

"I saw the accident where you fell into that, er...that time portal. Oh, do tell me how you got back!" Wigglytuff was smiling very broadly, still as joyful as ever. "As an explorer, you must have seen several strange and wonderful sights from a different time! Bring back anything?" I swallowed – this poor guy simply didn't get it. It's like he didn't even know what was going on around him! I knew he was a bit strange, but I guess it was time to spill the beans regardless.

"Guild Master Wigglytuff, you may have not seen us in so many days! Hundreds, maybe even a thousand! However, we have seen you only a couple of days ago, as a rough guess – we never did go back in time afterwards. As you can see, we were not the heroes of time we thought we were, and I have failed us all. It seems like Grovyle just had too many back-up plans and tricks for him to be stopped by a Mr Average such as myself, and as we can see from outside, everyone paid the price. I am happy to at least see that someone I know is still alive and cheerful." Wigglytuff tilted his head after my miserable words and it seemed like he was having trouble comprehending what I was saying.

"So..." I said, drumming my fingers together, glancing at Serge who was starting to look more horrified by the second as he moved to inspect the rest of the building on his own. "...About the other guild members...where are they? I've also heard that it's been stuck in night here for a very long time. Know anything about that?"

"A lot of the members of the guild sadly left. Bidoof and Corphish come round occasionally though, but most of them just left. Chimecho was seen a few days ago though, but as for Loudred, he sadly died in a giant assault when on a mission with Sunflora, oh how I failed him...haven't seen Sunflora either since she came with the terrible news." His eyes seemed to be even wider than than from when I last saw him, perhaps due to adjusting from the eternal darkness. "At least dear Chatot's still here though, but he just sleep all day like the lazy bones he became. I bet he's still sleeping as we speak." He chuckled slightly and offered me a seat. There was extremely little light in the building, not that Wigglytuff seemed to care, and clearly still looked to not mind this at all.

"So like I said...how long has it been night time? Surely that's been a really bad thing, right?" I said, sounding more uncomfortable by the minute.

"Oh, a few hundred days at a guess. Don't know the exact number, and it's a shame, I do kind of miss the sun, but it's nothing we can do about it eh? The most important thing however is that friendly friends such as us will stay together, right?" I didn't respond to this at all. Even though he was acting even kookier than usual, he didn't seem to be dangerously delusional, but I still wanted to leave this future all too quick to want to stay with Wigglytuff. "Well, let's go see if Chatot is awake, then maybe we can find some food. He said he was missing you when you gone away, he'll surely be very happy to see you all safe and sound!" Wigglytuff sat up and lead me towards a room that Serge was standing in, my friend making rather strange choking noises as the rotten smell got a little stronger, and it suddenly became very clear as to what the smell was.

"Oh Chatot, two friends have returned! Are you going to wake up now?" Chatot was there all right, sitting on a chair most comfortably with his beak and right eye open and unmoving. Of course, the left eye was completely missing with a huge gash leading down to his chest, which had been split open with most of his flesh cruelly ripped off with his ribs were broken off by brute force by the looks of things, and it seems like he was flat out missing some organs. I gagged as I covered my mouth in case I was about to vomit, but it almost felt like the moral thing to throw up at the sight of this mangled corpse. However, my morbid curiosity wouldn't allow my attention to move away from this horrific sight, forcing me to inspect Chatot's body closer as I felt the colour drain from my face. His left lung, heart and liver were flat out gone, and his right lung found itself misplaced where the left lung should have been as if it had been slapped together by the worst surgeon ever. There was very little blood around him however, evident that he was being kept clean, even in death.

"Wigglytuff..." I said, in a quiet squeak. "You do know...that..."

"Know what?" He replied as he tried telling Chatot to wake up. "Oh, yes, I do know that he's a real sleepy head." Just as I had sadly suspected, he was so firmly rooted in denial and would never move on in spite of how disfigured his lifeless form came to be. Maybe the times got to him too, just not in a murderous way, and yet there was a part of me that was almost pleased for him, as much as it defiled my devotion to Dialga – at least someone was happy here. I just wanted to be far away from him when he would move onto the next stage of grief.

"So..." I said, swallowing hard, the stench of death continuing to sicken me, and I could see Serge looking just as mortified, clutching the back of his head and breathing heavily, trying to calm himself. "When did he become so sleepy?"

"Oh, must have been...hrm...one hundred and fifty days ago, roughly. We both set out to try and rescue Croagunk after he had been missing for a couple of days. We knew where he was headed, but when we were looking for him, which was so very hard in the dark, we were ambushed by what must have been twenty different assailants, blood in their mouths and everything! Those big dumb meanies ended up being no match for us, but Chatot took a nasty beating, but I managed to drag him to safety. Quite badly injured, but I made sure he was fine. Perhaps we shouldn't speak too loud around him, Chatot needs his rest so he can recover." That wide smile never left my former guild-master, and I was really wanting to leave. Wigglytuff left the room afterwards, just leaving me and Serge.

"It's..." Serge said, mouth agape with a tear forming in each eye. "Let's just see what useful stuff we can get from what once was Treasure Town and leave." I nodded sadly and looked at what remained of Chatot. I stiffened my muscles and stood at attention before giving him a traditional salute, based from my home country's military and sadly nodded and left the room with Serge after he did something similar. Sure, I never liked Chatot that much, but he didn't deserve to die – no one truly does.

"So, will you two be staying here? I'd hate to lose you two like I did with some of the other guild members..." He cried a bit upon mentioning them and shuddered a bit, but the wide smile never left, as if his mouth was being pulled up by invisible hooks.

"So many good friends gone, and I never even got to say goodbye to them." Serge shuddered upon saying those words. "And even if I do see them again, will they be the same?"

"Hrm...maybe we should find them together!" Wigglytuff said, suddenly cheering up, but it all seemed to hopeless to me.

"Wigglytuff, I don't think that-"

"Oh, you must think positively Floyd! Come on, let's see that raging determination you had when fighting Grovyle!" Wigglytuff cheered up even further. "We can do this together!" Serge put him his hand to pause Wigglytuff right there.

"We'll need equipment though, and besides, you'll need someone to look after the guild, and no one will be able to protect it as well as you can. We'll go try to find them while you make sure the headquarters aren't raided. I seen some very powerful pokemon out there who could break in, or some sneaky ones that could get through the window." Wigglytuff thought about what Serge said for a moment, then nodded and agreed.

"Good thinking! I knew you two would be something special! I'll get you some supplies. I wouldn't normally use the guild stash, but the bank closed, and Kecleon has been acting odd lately. Will be right there!" He said, skipping into the supply cupboard. I was very pessimistic that the other guild members were 'all right' or not, but I was seriously wondering what Serge's intention was.

"This might be a bit rude of me to ask, but...are you lying to Wigglytuff as part of a scam to get us supplies?" I said in a very quiet whisper, thinking that Wigglytuff could potentially explode in anger if he overheard me.

"Well...I guess when you put it that way..." Serge said quietly, rubbing his head as I began to frown at the moral corruption of my friend.

"You said that you were going to help them. I know there's not much hope for that, but really? I guess we must do what it takes to survive..." I said with bitterness and slight sarcasm at the end.

"Wigglytuff has more than enough supplies surely, he doesn't need it all. You'll be thanking me Floyd." Wigglytuff soon returned with different foodstuffs, a few bottles of water, some bandages and a couple of torches, along with our backpacks that were left here.

"Isn't it wonderful? I don't normally give guild members my supplies like this to borrow in case I need them, but it's worth it to help save our friends! Maybe we can get this proud guild running to how it used to be in its glory days! I'm sure even the sleepy Chatot will wake up to congratulate you when you return!" He was practically bouncing on the spot, but I couldn't help but wonder how he got his supplies, or why he even agreed to this whole thing. As much as I was dedicated to the truth, not even I was above lying to protect myself from unfair treatment at times, and I still wish to be a stronger Dialgan, but as for now, that strength was nowhere to be found among my cowardice.

"Thank you very much, hopefully we'll be back very soon!" Serge said before leading me out of the guild headquarters as we waved goodbye to Wigglytuff. "Thanks for not ruining things there." He said to me when we were out of earshot.

"My lord doesn't explicitly forbid being silent in situations like that. This has already been more than harrowing for me, don't make me go through something like that again, given we have no plans to return here unless we get back to our own time."

"Which we will, Floyd. We have to, we...we fucking have to!" He said, shuddering and looking like he was about to burst into tears. "They're all dead, I just know it! It's like the entire world just died, and we and a few others are just stragglers on this corpse of a planet! And even then, it seems like their minds might have died with the world! What sort of deity that you..." He trailed off suddenly and continued walking south rapidly as we continued going through Treasure Town. Most of the shops were empty as he blew fire to light up each building – the little hospital seemed abandoned, the museum and the bank as well. We didn't bump into anyone at all, and all that remained was Kecleon at his shop, but I could only see one of the brothers.

"...It can't be! Floyd and Serge, it can't be you two, can it?" The purple one said from the shop counter and beckoned us over. "Oh, please tell me you're ok and you two have money to spend! No one does these days..." I frowned slightly because of his greed, but I was also confused, since I got the impression that money doesn't mean much in this current day and age. I guess this may be a little distraction from the new set of horrors I uncovered about half an hour ago.

"What would you even spend the money on anyway?" I asked, folding my arms. "Besides, we don't have any – the bank's abandoned. I don't think any form of currency is worth anything nowadays. Oh, and we're not fine – who could be fine any more?!"

"Well, that's where you're wrong! See, a traveller spoke to me a couple of hundred days ago, and he said that if I give him forty thousand poke, he'd show me where to find a creature called Ho-oh!" He said, suddenly seeming excited. Serge shrugged, clearly not knowing what or who Ho-oh was, but it was a staple in Asian mythology on my home world.

"I've heard of Ho-oh, but why do you particularly need to see it? It'd be awe inspiring to be sure, but..." I said as Kecleon's face saddened.

"It's, uh...to bring my dead brother back to life, using one of Ho-oh's extraordinary powers! He...he died when we were making a trade agreement with someone, but that someone turned out to be a crook and had many goons set on us, clearly not caring whether we lived or died. Our baggage was stolen, and they were even willing to kill my brother to get it...please, you must have some money! I'm getting very close, I've saved up thirty-five thousand!" He said, with pleading eyes.

"I am sorry, but like we said, we have nothing." I said as Kecleon's head sank as he sat down.

"I'm sure you'll be able to make your last five thousand and find Ho-oh to restore your lost brother." Serge said, trying to comfort him, but I couldn't bear it this time.

"Serge, you're giving the man false hope!" They both gasped as they looked at me, Kecleon's moth still wide agape. "I'm sorry, but this is almost certainly a scam! So someone just goes up to you and tells you of a creature that can restore the dead and demands a fuck-ton of money for him to show you where to go?! Ho-oh probably doesn't even exist, and even if it did, it still might not be able to raise the dead, and on the astronomically small chance it can, who says it will?! It's a lost cause...your brother's not coming back, not like this."

"But it's the only thing I have to live for! Surely I have to at least try..." His head sunk into his hands.

"It might even be a set up to kill you as well as take all your money. You're still alive, don't throw it away on something this risky in which you're pretty much certain to get nothing out of it. I like you, Kecleon, that's why I'm being honest. Of course, I always should be honest." Serge glared at me for what I said, and Kecleon seemed very unhappy as well.

"You should probably leave town you two, there's nothing for you here." He said, sounding like he was crying a bit. "Even some of the residents who stayed are a far cry from the people I once knew." A strange choking noise sounded far to the left, and a small growl sounded right afterwards.

"...Is that an example?" Serge asked, looking in the direction of the unsettling sound.

"I believe so, but as for how dangerous it is? I'm not sure. Oh how I wish this crisis was averted! Dusknoir said that the Time Gears were put back where they belong! Were we too late, was the damage already done? ...Oh, you should be careful with him." Kecleon said before moving what little stock he had left and shut the door. The shape that was approaching us seemed to be roughly our size with the tiniest, beady eyes showing.

"Who is that?" Serge said, speaking up as he took a couple of steps closer, and as I followed him, I recognized the puffy sides of his face and then I was able to tell who it was, and I was rather happy, or as happy as I could get while still suffering from the shock of seeing Chatot's dead body.

"Bidoof! You're alive, how have you been?" I said while approaching him, but Bidoof did not respond and instead just stared at me, his mouth hanging slightly open and staring blankly at us. A few of his teeth were broken off, including a massive one from his right bucktooth, and his whole mouth seemed to have quite a bit of blood on it. He must have escaped a nasty beating very recently by the looks of it.

"We should probably get you back to the guild." Serge said, but almost immediately after those words Bidoof let out hiss before jumping right at me, teeth bared menacingly. I was too confused in what he was doing that I didn't even get out of the way in time as he bit down hard on my leg, causing pain to erupt as the skin was pierced. I screamed hard that almost came out as a shriek as I felt my 'friend' try to dig in deeper, and I believed that he may have been able to tear a vein or artery if he didn't look so scrawny and starved. Serge blasted him from the side with fire as he let go with a saliva-clogged scream and suddenly gave an expression of exasperation and sadness before running off into the blackness in which he came.

"Argh! Fuck! Motherfucker tried to rip my leg off! Serge, bandage this!" I said, trying to stem the bleeding. "...Oh, Bidoof, you poor sod...can't you see it's only me. Grovyle...he killed Bidoof! He killed that kind hearted soul!" I continued ranting in anger and sadness as Serge bandaged up by gashed leg, shaking his head sadly in what he saw. What drove Bidoof to attack people on sight, I had no idea. Did the primal, savage natural instincts suddenly dictate survival by mindless aggression? Did he become a flat-out cannibal and was merely the least fussiest eater on the planet? Whatever he had became, he certainly didn't seem to recognize me at all.

"So that's it then...we can't trust in anyone but each other now." Serge said, looking like it was really difficult for him to admit that. "Even the most friendly of people could be completely broken like he had become. At least Bidoof, or what was left of him, ran off to the side, and I don't think he'd try that again." Serge never seemed to close his mouth fully while speaking, the corners of his mouth pulled down by invisible string, slurring some of his words a bit. He barely even blinked, and I guessed he was thinking like me right now – surely it'd only be a matter of time until some other horrible thing was encountered.

Eating another apple, Serge and I left Treasure Town's south side and continued on the path that we were begging that would lead us back to our proper home. The never-ending shadows once again obscured our sense of distance as we kept an eye out for any sign posts, the straight road leading us into land that seemed unfamiliar, yet we were unable to tell if we simply couldn't recognize it in its current state any more. The warping of this once beautiful world made me feel nauseous, a sure result of the constant fear that some crazed killer could be stalking us at any time, and my wrathful resentment towards Grovyle, who as far as I was concerned, the biggest mass murderer this planet has ever seen, perhaps even breaking the records of the world's worst back on Earth.

"Hrm? The road's gone hard." Serge said, looking down and feeling it with his hands as I did the same. It was Tarmac, I knew it, and I was also pretty sure that no pokemon has ever invented it yet. They were no where near being able to create such a surfacing material as this.

"Tarmac...another human technology, and I very much doubt there was a scientific revolution while we were gone. I remember a question I asked Dusknoir while you were speaking with other people – 'Would this crisis affect my world?' He deemed it to be likely, and seeing this..." I took very deep breaths, determined to not collapse in dread, trying to kill the thought of my father potentially being an axe-crazy murderer. No, he's a Dialgan, he has moral principles that he will never break!

"I'm sure such a revolution is at least possible Floyd." Serge said, stroking my back as I crouched down, holding my forehead and fiddling with the large and thin leaf on my head, trying to keep my composure. I slowly stood up straight with a huge breath, and as I exhaled, I felt ready to continue. However, as our luck would have it, I soon discovered there was a pressing issue behind us, giving fear a very sensible reason to exist. A strange and very faint whooshing noise, rather similar to a sound I heard back in the blazing forest sounded behind me somewhere and I spun around and saw a familiar moving shadow gliding across the ground heading right for Serge.

"Don't you fucking dare!" I growled as the shadow slipped out of the ground and it turned out to be a sableye that may or may not have been following us the entire time, but its intent for murder was still there as cruel black shadows quickly formed around its hand so fast I barely had time to push Serge out of the way before it tried to impale him with claws seemingly made from shadows themselves. After missing, I could get a clear shot and sliced at his torso with my tail lead, causing it to scream so horribly it caused me physical pain and I had to block out the sound as much as possible. Serge seemed to tolerate it though as he blasted the sableye with fire before rushing at it, slamming full force onto its body while he was enveloped in raging flames. The sableye was knocked back hard into a tree where it was knocked out and in no state to even pursue us after he got up. Serge didn't seem done yet though, as he put on an ominous frown.

"Uhh...Serge, it's been rendered useless...we're fine. Also, I'm not in the mood to stay around until it wakes up – there could be more on the way and while getting answers from it would be very nice, we might both be dead by then from being swarmed..." Serge paused and looked back at me, not changing that frown that filled me with unease.

"I wasn't thinking about that Floyd. I'm going to do something you really won't like, but it'll help ensure that we live. You'll thank me in the long run." I wasn't entirely sure what he meant, but I thrust myself in between him and the unconscious sableye regardless, assuming it.

"You are not going to kill him, or her if it's a female, Serge." I stared at him, refusing to blink as he sighed with frustration.

"You know as well as I do that once it wakes up, it can tell its accomplices where we have been so we'll be tracked down again easier. Also, having one more of these assailants will only make it harder for us to survive. I'd much rather you lived than that sableye." So this is what it had come down to. I thought I was starting to become twisted by this world, but it was now clear that Serge has strayed a lot further into insanity. Here he was, literally suggesting murder – how repugnant and unjustifiable! Yet I did not want to explode in his face, and I needed to at least try to convince him otherwise – I would be very unhappy walking alongside a murderer to say the least.

"Just so you know, I really care deeply for you, and you have been a terrific friend and you are totally irreplaceable. I am so very happy that I woke up in this world and met you, and I wouldn't have it any other way, so I hope you will understand what I am about to say – friends don't let friends murder! I will refuse to move, and if it is absolutely necessary, I will fight to ensure your hands remain clean!" We stared at each other for a moment, Serge clearly in shock and disgust from me defending someone who tried to kill him a few moments ago. I could understand the way he felt, and the reasons he had for thinking that killing him would be best, but perhaps it was best to try and use his way of thinking to reason with him.

"I understand that you do not respect my lord and master, and while it is disappointing, I can at least understand your 'bigger picture' mentality, but please hear me out. Dialga teaches us that focusing on the smaller aspects, such as the fact alone that you were ready and willing to commit murder, as opposed to more long-term results, such as our increased chance of survival. However, Dialgans such as myself don't completely ignore the long term. Let's think about it: if we kill this sableye, there may be a very vengeful family who might join the hunt, and thus we've replaced one assassin with many. Did that ever occur to you?" Serge shook his head, clearly not in the right mood to say much.

"Also, here is just one of the reasons why killing any human or pokemon is absolutely forbidden by Dialgan law under all circumstances with no exceptions whatsoever: Do you remember how horrified you were when you saw what remained of Chatot? Did it not cause horrible grief? Because it sure made me feel terrible, and that's just one of the reasons why murder is inexcusable – not only are you killing someone, you're also causing incredible misery to everyone close to the victim. This sableye's friends and family could be totally innocent and yet you'd still be willing to cause them great suffering? But in the end of the day, why should you, or anyone for that matter, have the right or power to decide who lives and who dies? Our minds are far too flawed to make decisions on that sort of calibre! What makes his life less valuable?!" My eye contact remained fixed on Serge who didn't seem like he was going to argue with me on this one.

"Very well, we'll leave him alive, but please understand I was trying to look out for us. However, you are probably right on this one. However, we probably should try to find a way to make sure he can't pursue us any more after he wakes." Serge said, inspecting the unconscious sableye.

"I say we cut the ends of his claws and slice his feet in half." I said with complete sincerity as Serge's eyes widened drastically to my brutal solution. "He'll survive, but he has to pay the price for attempted murder." Serge nodded and heated up his hands as one by one each claw was chopped off with precise swings of my tail leaf, using gravity to assist with each heavy swing, using all my strength. Serge stopped any bleeding with flames to cauterize the stubs to avoid too much blood loss and after we rendered him significantly more dangerous and partially crippled, we dumped him in a bush. He would find it hard to walk with his toes clean off, but he could still move enough to try and find food if needed. We were highly brutal there, but not as brutal as he was going to be, so I took great pride that we done the right thing as we continued our trek south.

"Floyd, sorry that I even considered killing him there. I was just so scared, and really, did we have to cut little pieces off him? Can we just pretend that all that never happened?" Serge had clearly calmed down a bit by now, now that we had been walking for another hour straight.

"It did happen, and nothing will change that. Still hope we don't have to do that again..." I said as the road ahead seemed to widen up, and familiar road markings from back in the human world had appeared. I couldn't lie to myself now, there was surely some human creations here, maybe even some human beings. I prayed that they fared better than the pokemon, but I would not believe it until I seen it.

"Unusual sign post." Serge said, shedding light on a side wind warning sign. Now this was narrowed down even further – these were British human creations, and they were far bigger than I remembered them to be, though possibly due to me being used to only being far less than a meter tall. I twitched, getting horrifying thoughts into my head again as we continued walking slowly down the empty road.

"What the?!" Serge said, pointing at something shiny that appeared several meters in front of us, and it seems like its eyes were glaring at us. I squinted in the darkness, and I could see that it wasn't moving, probably not even being alive. It seemed to have just been abandoned there, and upon closer inspection, I could see that it was never alive.

"A car...?! It...it won't hurt you Serge, but it's already hurt me." I sniffled as it began harder and harder to deny that the tragedy didn't hit home. The car was totally abandoned, and I explained to Serge about how it was a form of transport for humans. Each step filled me with dread, as I saw railings appear from each side of the very wide road, with a barrier separating the double lanes, so I assumed that we were on a very large bridge. Steel beams rose up from either side, slowly angling themselves upwards the further along we travelled, and as tough as they were to see in the dark, it soon started to dawn on me.

"I've been here before...it can't be!" I said, mind filling with panic, body ready to completely lose control to fear. Serge looked at me, more curious than fearful.

"As a human?" He asked innocently, but it was soon apparent to him that I felt completely destroyed by what I had discovered.

"It's the Forth Road Bridge! I've been over here several times! You experienced your own homecoming back north, and in only a few miles south, I will experience mine!"


	23. The Worst of Both Worlds

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

Chapter 23: The Worst of Both Worlds

I inhaled deeply as I started to accept the fact that we had entered human civilization, or at least whatever remained of it. The dead stillness did not waver once and the absolute silence was only broken ever so slightly by our timid breaths and frightened footsteps. We slowly crossed under the first tower as it shot up into the black beyond as I took an apple out of my bag and bit into it to try and relieve the stress slightly. The sense of wonder and intrigue was visible on Serge's face among the fear, but there was none of that for me, and I began to fear that my own species may have lost themselves in madness much like the pokemon have.

"How high do these structures rise?" Serge said, looking up at one of the towers suspending the giant bridge in wonder and awe, possibly trying to blank out the horrors that we had encountered earlier. "Is human technology and architecture always this grand?"

"At least a hundred meters...such a waste now though." I said sadly, brushing my hand across the railing. It didn't seem to be in bad shape as the timeless universe preserved it well, yet not a soul crossed its great length.

"You know, when we get back home, perhaps we can convince the guild to see your world if we can." The petty distractions Serge was offering weren't even remotely effective.

"If there's even much left after we go back. Point is, we failed to stop this and even if we can get back to our own time, there'll only be, like, I dunno, six months of not living in perpetual darkness. If you have plans, you'd better enact them quickly." I said back as we continued to cross one of Scotland's greatest architectural achievements. Serge suddenly stopped, grabbing my arm and giving me a bit of a fright.

"Mind not doing that so suddenly?!" I said quietly to him, but he seemed to be listening in.

"I heard a voice ahead of us I think. Doesn't sound like a sableye though, thankfully." He didn't need to tell me to be careful as we both stepped forward carefully, getting ready to attack or flee at the slightest sign of aggression. I heard it too this time, as whatever it was mumbled to itself incomprehensibly. A shape appeared as we drew closer, looking very tall and thin compared to us as an unwanted sense of familiarity dawned on me when I realised what it was.

"Serge, please don't judge her too harshly." I felt my heart and other organs sink as I recognized that it was a woman – a human woman. Serge gazed at her with interest, trying to figure out what it was as the size reference between me and the woman once again reminded me how small I had become.

"Floyd, that's not a human, is it? A real life human?" I nodded sadly as I looked at her blank expression as she wandered in our general direction, not paying any attention to us. She was carrying a spade tightly in both hands which I sincerely hope was just covered in dirt, but any other details about her were too hard to make out.

"Fascinating..." Serge said as she stopped a few meters in front of us where her blank, glassy expression gave way to an expression of distress.

"You! Have you seen Margaret!? You must have seen her!" I let out a confused groan at this – not only was seeing a human now very strange to me, but a distressed woman clutching a large spade almost threateningly asking a pokemon to find someone? I was to baffled to react immediately, however, Serge wasn't.

"Wow, are you really a human? I'm amazed! My name is Serge, who are-" She interrupted Serge hastily, knocking aside his curiosity.

"Have you seen Margaret?!" She snapped, sounding louder. "And I don't know how you can talk, but it's most definitely a start! Now out with it, where is she?!"

"We don't even know who this Margaret is!" I piped up, fearing aggression from her. I may have become a fairly tuned fighter during my life as a snivy, but she was still about three times my size. "It's Serge's first time meeting a human being in the flesh and this is how you treat him?"

"Well I don't give a shit!" The woman said, grinding her teeth, gripping her spade. "You'd better start talking before I turn you into a bleeding mess of crushed bones!"

"Killing us won't do you any favours! It won't help you find Margaret! If you continue to threaten us with death, we'll make sure you won't be in shape to find her! Although, could I ask you a question?" I hoped this would diffuse her, and she seemed like she was quite the mood-swinger and lowered her spade.

"...You're right. Well, go on, make it quick – Margaret's death can't come quick enough for killing my husband over tins of beans!" I immediately regretted wishing her luck there, but I was in no mood to reignite her rage.

"You looked like you were walking North – as a rough guess you either came from or recently travelled through Edinburgh, right?" She nodded silently and then sighed sadly.

"The city's gone. All the buildings are still there, more intact than you'd believe, and there's even a few people and pokemon still wandering about, but the city is gone." I squeezed my eyes shut, biting my lip and breathing deeply, desperately trying to remain composure. Hearing the friendly voice of an old friend or one of my parents would be enough to sooth the constant dread and gloom hanging above me ever since we arrived in the future, but it was just too likely that they'd be dead or worse.

"The city's gone, there's nothing there, you're wasting your time going there." She repeated, "Besides, Margaret isn't there, I heard she went north. When I finally find and kill that bitch, I can finally die..." She suddenly ran past us, disappearing far quicker than she arrived.

"...I trust you won't judge my kind based on her. The idealistic part of me hoped that mankind would have enough integrity to keep civilization in tact after a calamity like this, but alas..." I closed my eyes and breathed a huge amount of air before trucking onwards. As much as I wanted to grieve for what happened to the city and it's people, and quite possibly the entire human race from all around the world, lamenting wasn't exactly going to give me any results.

We entered a small town, Queensferry, just as we left the bridge. Keeping to the road, we barely saw any buildings that Serge would no doubt want to see, but it's something I wouldn't likely be able to bear. I already had the feeling that Queensferry had been reduced to a ghost town, and we weren't low on supplies just yet, so scavenging wasn't on the agenda right this moment.

"Floyd, I haven't slept since we left the dungeon, I probably won't be able to go too much further without a rest." It now made sense why Serge was beginning to become more sluggish now. I guess we could find an empty house to stay in – it's not like they'd all be occupied. I told Serge this and we veered off the main road to inspect the houses. A car with its windows smashed in could be seen, the light from Serge's fire reflecting off it in the darkness and it seemed to be in a driveway. As we approached it, the house seemed appropriate in to stay for a few hours of rest, but an unearthly groan sounded from inside the building which changed our minds immediately. I didn't even want to know what occupied that building as I started briskly walking away from the house to the other end of the empty street.

"I can't hear anything...there's an open window here, want to have a look?" I whispered as Serge nodded and climbed inside the half-open window. Much like some of the buildings back in Treasure Town, the building seemed to be looted of all supplies, and every cushion lying around was slashed open, obviously by people desperately looking for hidden food that could have been inside them.

"Not pretty, but it'll do...yes, Serge, this is a human house. This cooks food, this washes dishes, and this is...er, how would I describe a television...no matter, the electricity is out, none of it works anyway." Serge seemed to be just as confused as he was curious, but this gave way to a huge yawn as he rested his body on a mutilated couch. "I'll explain about all this stuff when you wake up. I'll keep watch while you sleep. It took Serge quite a while to drop off, given how his eyes seemed to dart from object to object with wonder.

I sat on the windowsill, eating a tasty apple with both hands. I had managed to contain a lot of my hunger, but even as I munched more of the juicy flesh of the fruit, the temptation to completely pig out was still very strong. Occasionally, I could see shapes walking down the street: some human, some pokemon, others I couldn't tell. They didn't bat an eyelid towards me, yet I could hear opening doors and windows occasionally, some of them clearly looting for survival, given I pieced together that food can't grow any more due to the eternal night. It was the reality I faced – we could be some of the last things alive, eating each other over the last scraps of food and staving off the inevitable extinction of all life on this planet, which could happen in mere months by the way things looked. It obviously terrified me as I grew pale even thinking about it. It became clear to me that I was simply too far in denial and fear earlier on to accept that this was the truth. Dialga always said that while we should all be completely and utterly committed to the truth, we should also accept that the truth can sometimes be incredibly ugly.

Hours past as I kept my eye on the street outside, making sure nobody walked into the house. A large four legged pokemon appeared from the black, prowling the street, seeming like it was an active predator. It seemed to look scrawny, but it's malnourishment would probably be compensated by its desperation if it made a go for me, so I decided to hide behind the window. I could hear it breathing heavily, each individual breath sounding heavily laboured. I had no idea whether it could smell me or not, and I was considering waking up Serge to be ready to confront this pokemon that I couldn't quite make out. I kept my own breath very quiet as I lightly walked over to wake him up but I was cut off when it growled sharply. Two seconds later, I heard the sound of intense cackling fire, very similar to the sound when Serge attacks by spewing flames and then the sound of a terrified scream that sounded oddly familiar, filling me with dread. I know I recognized that voice before, and it sounded human. The sound of flames was suddenly cut off when it was very suddenly replaced by ear-splitting gun shots in quick succession, the human still screaming with both fear and anger as it carried its way around the entire street.

"Floyd, what was that?!" He whispered with a hiss as he sat bolt upright, breathing heavily from the loud bangs from a few seconds ago.

"Something that can kill you in a heartbeat from a couple of hundred meters away..." I muttered as I peeked over the edge of the window. The man was still there, trying to get a grip on the pokemon he riddled with bullets from his handgun and seemed to be dragging it towards the house where we were in.

"Time to leave, now." I said quietly and started leading Serge to find a back door to leave from. The rest of the house didn't seem to be in much better shape, with many things such as chairs and lamps all knocked over around the room that we pretty much had to climb around. I felt even smaller and even more insignificant in here, the roof being about five times my height as I scuttled round the corner to hear the human casually opening the door with a key. I doubt the human would be happy considering we were now trespassing.

"Damn...invaders...if I find you..." He snarled from the living room as we found the back door, but we could see no way through any windows, all of them being barred shut very recently by the looks of things. We weren't getting out this way, but maybe we could escape via a different window...

"Up there." I mouthed, with absolutely no sound escaping from my throat as my jaw tensed up trying to force myself not to hyperventilate in stress. I felt an almost irresistible urge to whimper, scream and then flee in fear, but the more rational side of me beat the emotional side this time as I quietly made my way up the stairs with Serge, who didn't look like he realised how dangerous the human was. I could hear him overturning whatever furniture he had left, trying to search for us, letting out a growl upon the disappointment that he found no one in that room. After we climbed to the top I lead Serge into the first room I could see, which seemed to be the bedroom, with only the bed and two chest of drawers left, with the mattress, pillows and covers missing from the former.

"You'll have to jump if he comes up the stairs." I whispered very quietly as I managed to force the window open, finding the mundane task far harder in this small body. Serge nodded, not looking too fearful and as our luck would have it, the sound of footsteps on the stairs came into our ears. I motioned him to jump and he dropped down into the bushes below, breaking his fall but making quite a lot of noise in the process. I heard him suddenly dash downstairs, obviously hearing it and I immediately jumped down to, hurting my leg and cutting myself lightly on one of the branches. Wincing in pain, I ran just behind Serge, the wound I received from Bidoof still causing me stabbing soreness, hampering my speed. Behind me, I heard the sound of the door opening and a dread-filling sound of the gun being fired alongside the deadly piece of metal slamming into the pavement just to the right of me.

"Don't fucking move, or I'll make you explode with blood!" I continued running, hedging my bets that he'd miss small agile targets, but it seemed like Serge had a different idea as I soon found myself running by myself. Looking over my shoulder, Serge had indeed stopped, staring at the human who I now finally got a good look at. It couldn't be...

"Douglas?!" I said with a choke as I turned to face him. I still recognized one of my old friends in spite of the shaggier hair all over his head and face, looking a bit more like me when I was a human oddly enough, but his usual warm and open smile was replaced with a frown that may have lasted months alongside the gritted teeth as he aimed his handgun at Serge.

"Another human! ...Does that thing in your hand really kill people?" Serge said, his curiosity seeming to reach right into the retarded territory as he stared death in the face in the form of the barrel of a gun. "Was that your house? It was fascinating! I couldn't possibly take anything from it, it's just too wonderful to see in it's own state!" Douglas scratched his beard with his left hand, holding his gun in the right, seeming to be quite confused. I was just as confused, and I had no idea whether Serge was just that naïve or whether it was an act.

"More talking pokemon...strange. You seem a bit stupid, but..." His left hand joined the right in aiming at Serge. "You could still kill me. You can't do anything for me, give me a reason why I shouldn't make sure that you won't try to kill me! Twenty seconds!" He screeched the words as he started counting down, missing the occasional number and starting to speed up over time.

"Because we haven't done anything wrong! We'd never harm you!" Serge pleaded with him, but Douglas didn't look impressed. I wanted to cry right there and then, and it seemed like I might not have a choice as I felt my eyes watered up. Just like Bidoof, he too had become a paranoid killer and it now became clear why he was dragging the corpse of the pokemon that attacked him to his house, even though he lived in Edinburgh. For all I knew, he could have claimed it as his own throughout the desperate will to survive. I guess there was only one thing for it now...

"Douglas! What the fuck is your problem?! You'd just shoot an innocent person or pokemon because it has the capability of hurting you?! Dammit, I always knew you as being highly gentle even if the band image, The Kyogre is Dead, went for a mean and tough appearance! Just how many have you shot in cold blood?! I'm disgusted in you!" I screamed at him, not caring what we alerted as I finally let my emotions out. It wasn't fear any more, but anger, but most of all, great disappointment. How could I have befriended this psychopath?!

"...You called me Douglas. No one's called me that in months, years even, I lost count." He rasped as he slowly lowered the gun, looking puzzled. "Right, who told you my name, and how do you know me!" He said, holding his handgun up, this time pointing it at me. I had no time for lies, for I had seen what a world without Dialga and his laws has caused. It was the root of the problem, and I had no intentions of being a part of it.

"It's because I'm an old friend of yours. Floyd Munro. I'd say it was good to see you as a face I recognize in the human world, but I've now seen what your capable of." I felt certain he wouldn't take my word for it and jump to the worst possible conclusion that I was some kind of evil spirit, and yet, his voice was a little smoother now as he spoke again.

"Well...things have been stranger lately. Never-ending nights, savages, talking pokemon suddenly appearing. Maybe that's where some of us have gone missing, maybe those bat shit insane Palkians were right about their views on reincarnation and you really are Floyd. I'd ask you questions to make sure it's you, but the past has become so hard to remember now, like a very vague dream. I'll take your word on not taking any of my stuff, come inside for a bit, will you, old friend?" I inhaled deeply through my nose, trying to hide my feelings. As far as I was concerned, he was a murderer who shot the pokemon, which turned out to be an arcanine many times. He clearly had no intentions of trying to simply cripple it without causing death and I had every intention of cutting all ties from him after this little meeting.

I was rather amazed at the fact that he believed me when I said I was Floyd as we went inside. Douglas seemed to be looking around for something and shortly after he returned carrying a some logs, some paper and a meat cleaver. He dumped the logs and paper in the front garden and sat down on the ruined sofa next to the door.

"Cyndaquil, mind lighting the fire?" Douglas asked as Serge shrugged and obliged. Douglas then turned to the bullet-ridden corpse of the arcanine, raised his meat cleaver high and brought it down with great force, making a sickening noise that sounded half way between a thud and a squelch. I did noticed how thin and withered he looked as it pretty much confirmed that starvation was probably the biggest cause of death.

"You're not getting any of this by the way. I shared some with Scott a while ago and he just ran away with food and supplies that I found." As if I was ever going to eat the flesh of some pokemon that he was cooking crudely by cooking a chunk of flesh with the hairy skin still attached to it by skewering it with a pole and making it hover over the roasting flames. Even Serge seemed to be slightly sickened.

"So, Floyd, how did you get turned into a snivy? And this cyndaquil, who's he?" He said casually as he stuffed his face with the chunk of flesh. I really couldn't hide my disgust too well, but I kept myself from saying anything that could get us In trouble. He was still holding the gun in his left hand, after all.

"Floyd's memory has been, well, messed with somehow, and I've been a pokemon my entire life. Do the pokemon here not speak?"

"Nah mate, they're little more than wild animals with superpowers. Maybe some of them learned to speak through sheer insanity, who knows, or it could be that the Giratina worshipping bastards were right all along about the supposed other world." Douglas said, blood from the poorly cooked arcanine flesh dripping from his chin. "Only started hearing of the talking pokemon about a month ago, some still quite civilized such as myself, some who could barely speak at all. The last talking one I saw was a Grovyle, he was wondering where the best route to Earlston was. Must have been about, eh, I'm guessing about twelve hours ago."

"Grovyle! That cunt!" He tilted head slightly and looked puzzled at my outburst. "He is the one responsible for all this. He must be found and brought to justice and feed his limbs to some poor sap and leave him to pull himself along the ground by his teeth!"

"Haha, Floyd, you're like an exaggerated version of your younger self! Not really my business hunting down people or pokemon that far away, but if it fixes things and makes it easier to survive, then I'll root for you. Look, I know you're into the old Dialgan no-killing thing, but sooner or later, I think it'll come down to kill or be killed." He gestured to his gun. "It's the only reason why I managed to survive, morality is pretty much been made redundant." I had to leave now. Between discovering that one of my friends is a serial killer and learning of Grovyle's destination, I wanted to leave; I needed to leave.

"We have to go, Grovyle's punishment awaits. Come, Serge, quickly!" I said, as I pulled him away as we left Douglas to dig into more of the freshly killed arcanine. I wanted to cry so badly at the way how he casually implied that he had killed many pokemon and many humans alike for his own selfish need to survive. How could have I ever gotten along with that savage monster let alone have been friendly with him?! There was nothing more to do aside from mourn those he had killed however, except perhaps making him pay for his crimes. He didn't deserve hands any more, and I think he'd be rendered almost harmless without them!

"Serge...mind helping me with something?" I said in a low murmur as Serge stood in front of me to make eye contact. "You see, Douglas may have been my friend, but now, he's nothing but a ruthless serial killer and possibly even a cannibal. By Dialgan law, I am obliged to be judge and jury if there is no law any more, so I am going to cut off his hands and I need to to breathe fire on the stumps I make to stop him from bleeding to death. I'll be judge and jury, but I cannot be the executioner, and neither you will."

"No, Floyd, we're going to find Grovyle so we can get home – maiming Douglas isn't going to help anyone." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You're completely missing the point Serge – he's done many vile and despicable things and he's got to pay for it! You can't just let monsters like him get away freely like this without consequence!"

"Trust me, I'm sure he'll receive his comeuppance in time if you care so deeply about it. Regardless of what you decide, I'm going to find Grovyle, so I strongly advise for both our sakes that you also choose to try and find Grovyle as well. After all, Grovyle is far more evil than a serial killer, isn't he? He indirectly decimated the entire population of two different worlds, so if you want to be some 'Dialgan justice bringer' or whatever, shouldn't you focus on the biggest criminal first?" I didn't really have a response to this. Perhaps he was right, and even if he wasn't, perhaps I should be getting my priorities in order.

"Besides Floyd, if we find a way to undo all of this, maybe Douglas will never descend into this murder-to-survive thing he's adopted. So, do you know where Earlston is? It is a town, isn't it?" I nodded, still taking in what he was saying. The more evil the villain, the more effort you must put into punishing the villain, according to Dialga. Douglas can wait a little longer I guess.

"Yes, and thankfully I can probably find it in the dark. I travelled the road there often to see my grandparents who lived just past Earlston in a town called St Boswells. We follow this road into Edinburgh then go south. However, I think this will take about two days to get there, and there's a big problem – I don't think Grovyle..." I said, shuddering in anger over saying his name. "...Will be staying there for long. I don't know why he wants to visit a small town like that, but I doubt Earlston's his home town. Maybe there's someone who's in league with him who lives there?" Serge clearly knew even less than I did about the whole situation.

"Well, let's just use the only lead we have. Lead the way Floyd." We soon left the shadow of Queensferry behind, neither of us able to decide whether we preferred the occasional shuffling and groaning sounds within the town or the dead silence in the open. Serge and I tried to keep fear from setting in too much by chatting about the differences between the societies he came from and the human ones where I once resided. The cold, empty roads never seemed to end and it felt like we were making no progress at all until the road slowly widened and the first signs of the grand city of Edinburgh started to appear. There was still a noticeable absence of people, yet we did encounter a couple of half eaten corpses who's repugnant smell almost made me throw up. I didn't dare think if the two woman were mauled and devoured by a pack of hungry pokemon or it was a case of cannibalism. Aside from our footsteps and heavy breathing, the area was still soundless aside from a weeping female who's wails carried themselves eerily over the streets from whence they came. Serge seemed to be a little more composed than I was, his breath being fairly steady unlike mine, inhaling far faster than I was exhaling, until a sudden screech sounded two o'clock from where we were standing like rubber on tarmac.

Serge suddenly yelled and sprinted forward, the sound completely alien to him as he seemed to scream ever so slightly upon each time he exhaled. Dazzling lights almost blinded me as I looked round to see what it has caused and I instinctively dived into the roadside hedge to hide. I figured that it was a car, presumably one of the last that had any petrol left in it as the screeching continued as it drifted round the corner, brushing the bushes dangerously close to me and speeding away. Rubbing my eyes to try and regain my vision, everything seemed to be much darker due to my eyes having to adjust. It was already extremely dark as it was, but I may as well be blind now. There was nothing for it but to yell for Serge.

"SERGE! Yell back and I'll come over!" I shouted louder than I would have liked given we may have been tracked, but I was still to disoriented to really think it through at the time.

"OVER HERE!" He screamed back as I slowly walked over, being able to make out Serge's fire, which was really the only visible thing as of now. I stumbled on a rock that I couldn't see, but nevertheless, made it back to where my friend was.

"What the...fuck was that?! It's gone and isn't coming back, right?!" Serge said, looking quite pale beneath the fur and was visibly shaking. "Just came out of nowhere screaming its head off! Is it a human-world thing?"

"A car, or some other kind of vehicle, I couldn't quite make it out. People who drive these vehicles, these transport tools, are usually far less reckless than that. Remember the cars left on the bridge? That's one of them in motion." Serge still seemed to be very shaken up, and I hoped that he wouldn't run scared from other cars unless, of course, it was driving right at him. "Oh, and don't get in their way either, you'll probably die if you're hit by a fast moving one."

"And these things are common!? You sure the human world was much safer than mine?" I appreciated the banter, keeping me distracted from some of the horrors.

"They were very common when things weren't perpetually dark. I'd normally be walking at the side of the road to stay out of the way of people driving cars and whatnot. I wonder where our turn in to the city bypass is now? I can't help but feel like we should have seen it by now..." I jogged over to the far side of the road to see if I could see trees or buildings, and it turns out that there were both – the turn in to the city bypass must be ahead. However, the familiarly large junction never seemed to come, and I hoped this was just due to me being bad at judging distances in my snivy body. Dim flares of candle light inside the occasional house let me know that there were quite a few who were still alive, and I had a bad feeling that they would not be friendly if they knew we had food.

"Serge, unless we get stopped, do not try and make eye contact with any human or pokemon, I'd rather if we were ignored. It is lucky for us that Douglas, while a morally repugnant murderer, at least seemed to value the friendship I once had with him to not shoot us for our food. I would expect many other humans and pokemon alike to not hold back at all. They'll sure kill to sustain themselves for a few more days if we give them the chance. I can't be sure, but I'd sure expect it..."

"What makes you so sure?" Serge asked, clearly still being rather naïve about the whole scenario.

"Take in everything you've learned so far, and you will see that society is gone. Society and civilization are the prime factors that freed us from the shackles of natural selection, and as we can see, the cold laws of Darwin has returned with a vengeance." The sound of scraping metal and low mumbling from across the street prompted Serge and I to halt and to turn of all lights. I couldn't make out much aside from two words – 'hungry' and 'Dialga.' My heart rate rose as he drew near but thankfully didn't see to notice as he went about his business.

"At least someone still acknowledges my master." I muttered quietly as he disappeared into the night of the city. It became all too clear that electricity had become a thing of the past now as everyone was now forced to use the most primal of light sources. When Serge lit up his back again, I noticed something strange to our left – a half broken stone wall with trees over the top. Seems like we were by Hillwood Park, way past our turn off.

"Shit...Serge, I made a mistake. We missed our turn off way back. I'm sorry." I sighed sadly, knowing that I had let us both down. Serge didn't quite as down, but he did show a deal of concern. "I think we passed it when we were scared off by the car. It'll be quicker just going through the city centre and hoping we don't end up in trouble."

"Serge? Is this something about Dialga?" He had a flier in his hand which I assumed he found on the ground. It was covered in dirt and muck, but I could still see even from here that it was still very similar to the usual licensed Dialgan fliers used to try and convert non-believers. However, when I took it off him to have a closer look, and what I read caused me to turn pale.

"_Our true lord and master has returned and has claimed the proud city of Edinburgh in his name! All citizens are required to check in at the Scottish Parliament Building, Hollyrood, to pledge allegiance to Dialga. Refusal to do so by the 28th of October is punishable by death or by sacrifice. You are urged to convince all friends and family to come to Hollyrood to make the pledge to reduce the death toll to ensure that Dialga will favour Edinburgh and thus help it survive the tribulation."_

In spite of the deplorable message that made me want to tear the thing up and scream in horror and out right confusion as to why a Dialgan would ever suggest murder and killing is acceptable under any situation, I couldn't help but continue to stare at it, even as the taste of my stomach juices entered my mouth.

"...This...why...This is not Dialgism! This is not the word of Dialga! It is the very antithesis to my lord! H...how?!" I said, spitting the vomit on the flier as I began to feel more nauseous. This was sick in every sense of the word. I had secretly always wanted to see Dialgism take more of a role in society and even shape the laws of the land, but this?! What was I to say, do or think?! It was only the start of the horrors I'd find that this cult that names itself in Dialga's name offered. I turned it over only to reveal a brief wanted list. I recognized a face there, one of the priests that often visited my father, and was a good friend to him, often seeking and sharing moral advice with him and occasionally to me as well, and I hoped that he was still alive. I noticed the last one had no picture, and the text took up much of the space on the flier describing him.

"_This person is the biggest enemy to Dialga within this city and leads the biggest resistance against Dialga. We fear that upon hearing his name or seeing his face, a limb may be severed within sixty seconds, but have no fear! The high traitor is mortal and can be stopped with a bullet to the head or a knife to the heart! We are not interested in having him alive, he is to be killed on sight, for everyone's safety and spiritual well being under Dialga's new city."_

I wondered who this person was, but this only let me know just how crazy and superstitious these 'Neo-Dialgans' were, believing that Dialga would ever want this to happen to Edinburgh or the irrational belief that someone's name cannot be known or their appearance cannot be seen without dire consequence. Whoever this traitor was, I hoped that he was successful in stopping this mad cult, but on the other hand, they could have at least brought stability to the chaos that existed in this day and age. Maybe the city wouldn't be quite so chock-full of death, given the Neo-Dialgan cult seemed to have failed.

"Floyd, are you crying?" Serge asked, looking at me, and I only just noticed why my vision seemed to be blurry. I continued to stare through the tears as another dose of reality hit me hard across the face. I nodded slightly as I gritted my teeth as I check the flier again to make sure there was no other relevant information before I tore it apart with blind fury and grief as I gritted my teeth hard, trying to stop myself from yelling out in raw anger. I thought better of the human race than this. I thought they were above shitting on everything Dialga and all good men and woman stand for then claim to have done so in his name in spite of it being the very antithesis of the teachings of Dialga.

"...Let's...let's just keep moving..." I said, choking on my rage as I lead Serge onwards. My throat and stomach felt like it was conflagrating, tempered by the feeling of helplessness I had, knowing that I was in no position to change anything about this.

"Floyd, let me remind you that this may be just one possible future. It's a thought I just had – perhaps if we follow Grovyle back, we can find out a way to stop this calamity from happening. Sure, it turned out it will take more than just putting the Time Gears back, but there has to be some other way. This is just a passing moment, we'll get through this and we'll see that it never happens to your world or mine." He patted me on the back and the searing feeling subsided, but only very slightly. I had a path through the rest of the city firm in my head, and this time, I would not deviate from it. I still regretted not turning back and taking the city bypass as I think I could have gotten by without knowing there was a murderous cult that likely once held the city in a choke hold.

Exhaustion started setting in, so we hid among a small patch of bare trees just before a junction, climbing high within it just to be safe. I wondered if we were going to have enough food for the entire journey to Earlston, but there was certainly enough to feed us both as of now.

"So...what do you think of exploring a different world in a different time? My home city...what do you think of it?" I said, some of the fiery grit remaining in my voice, unable to contain my grief and disgust.

"It's rather lifeless. We've been walking for about two to three hours, and we've barely seen anyone. Think they're all in their houses?" Serge said as I spat bitterly on the ground next to me.

"Most of them will be dead and devoured, and the rest inside buildings while scraping their last tin of beans." I said bluntly as I cleared my throat. "After we're done, we're not sleeping. The church I used to attend is on the way, I must be there! I've never felt so cut off from Dialga..."

"But how will that help?" Serge replied, and I glared at him for his cheek and insensitivity, even if he didn't mean it. "...Sorry. It's just all so alien to me. Can Dialga hear, or care, or do anything in response to these prayers." I sighed sadly. Truth be told, I was in no mood at all to explain right now, nor did I get the chance between eating the rather delicious sandwich the ominous howls in the distance.

"Hear that Floyd? Sounds like talking." I suddenly did hear muttering as I stopped eating and kept very still to listen in. Whoever it was was too far away to me made out clearly, slightly drowned out by the barking of some dog or pokemon that I guessed was accompanying him. Shortly after, I heard their footsteps on the street just behind another tree until the sound suddenly stopped. I hope we didn't give of much if a scent, given we've not cleaned ourselves for a few days.

"Ah, mightyena...in the trees?" A voice said as the footsteps got louder as they approached the tree that we were sitting in. I gave Serge the signal to remain as silent as still as possible as I gazed down to see what there was as they became close enough to view in detail a few meters below us. A fairly old man with greying hair and a beard that looked like they hadn't been treated in an entire year with the largest pupils I ever did see on a human being. He twitched every so often as he gripped his old fashioned hunting rifle with one hand as he looked around. Accompanying him was a mightyena, a houndoom and a manectric. My eyes widened as I looked at Serge as I tried to tell him with hand gestures alone to try and escape via crossing the trees.

"Mightyena says you got food up in there, strangers." The man said with a cruel looking smile as he pointed his rifle at me directly when I came into view when I tried to cross a tree, but thankfully Serge managed to get out of sight. "Now I know many pokemon know my language, or at least you had better know my language!" His voice sounded like it was ridden with tobacco fumes yet had a friendly and warm tone to it, but I highly doubt it was sincere. He gave a gesture to houndoom as the pokemon started blowing searing flames at the root of the tree as I started to sweat for more reasons than one.

"Right, I'll offer yeh a deal – you give me all your food and where to find an area of this city that is a little more populated, and I'll let yeh live. Oh, and if you try to run, I'll shoot yeh dead, and if I miss, well, look who's with me. I'd be quick if I were yeh, I'll take a roasted snivy with your food in your bag as a constellation prize." My mind seemed to split in three at this exact moment, divided into raw fear and panic, escape possibilities and solutions, and answering the man's question. Could he hit a small and fast target like myself? Could I successfully flee or fight of the pokemon if I landed on the ground? Where was a more populated area?

"I'm lettin' yeh live! Yeh should be grateful! Now hurry up! Besides, I need meat to feed my comrades, and you will tell me now where to get it." Putting two and two together, I guessed that he was stooping low enough for him and hunting pack to slaughter humans for sustenance, and my heart sunk. I had to make a stand against evil to be sure, but how? I was in no position to stop him at gunpoint, and with the flames rising higher, it was only a matter of time until they started to roast me alive.

"North of here!" I said suddenly giving the vaguest answer possible, feeling the heat from the flames which were slowly closing the gap . "Now let me jump down safely!"

"More specific! What street?" He grunted, his aim unwavering. Here I was. A hero with people's lives and Dialgan values in my hand. I knew of many streets north of here in Edinburgh, including one where there were many candles lit inside some of the houses. I quickly considered my options – refuse to answer and die, tell the truth, or lie, if he wasn't going to shoot him anyway. I loathed his guts, and while I can't ever approve of ending the life of any human or pokemon, I probably wouldn't try to stop his pokemon from eating him alive if they suddenly turned on him.

I could lie to his face and mislead him of course, but I gave this a quick but very hard think. Why did the city die? One could blame it on the never-ending night, but I knew there was a deeper and more universal reason for society's complete collapse – Dialga's true words held no sway as everyone abandoned them in a time of crisis. Through Dialga's words, the city could have been saved from all this death and immorality, but it was not to be. Yet I was not one to give up hope on this city, and even if it truly was hopeless, I would stand by Dialga's word to the very end. Lying is simply not acceptable under any circumstance, and I will not ever disobey my lord's teachings, not even in the face of death itself! I'd remain silent and die right here! I glared at the man and gave him the middle finger, and in response he cocked his rifle. In hind sight, I should have ran earlier, and hearing the sound set a spasm of fear right across my whole body.

"Qu...Queensferry Road!" I suddenly blurted out, fear replacing morality for that split second. The bearded man smiled as he lowered his rifle and told me to jump down before I was incinerated by the escalating flames. I landed softly on the ground and moved away from the tree, but it didn't seem like he was done yet.

"The food in yer backpack! Give it to me, now!" I was about to give it all to him in a rush of panic when another burst of flames came in from the left and collided with his arms as he dropped the rifle, screaming in agony. After taking a second to process what had just happened I proceeded to take action and hammered down with my cutting tail leaf, not quite cutting the rifle in half, but it was most definitely unusable now. His pokemon seemed to be more distracted by whatever attacked their master which just left him and I.

"You piece of shit! You repugnant piece of shit!" I yelled over and over as I cut at his ankles, rendering him unable to walk as he continued to scream in fear and pain, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Seeing this butcherer and possible cannibal suffering for his crimes was incredibly satisfying. "Now, I won't kill you, but I'll make sure that you're incapable of killing ever again!" I said loudly and happily as I began to chop his fingers off one by one, each slice making him shudder and writhe as he lied there helplessly.

"Help me! Please!" Unfortunately, his pokemon seemed to be just as vile and were loyal to this reprehensible cunt as mightyena charged out of the shadows and pounced at me. I had become so experienced with dealing with your average savage pokemon that I didn't really feel too threatened any more. A quick dodge to the side as a slice to one of his legs was enough to send her crashing to the ground as I leapt on top of her and held her tight with my vines and my arms as I started to drain energy out of her as my arms grew green as she became exhausted quite quickly. All food and energy resources had to be used somehow, and it wasn't like I was killing anyone, and besides, the mightyena deserved it for not abandoning this bastard.

"No! Mightyena! He yelled as he tried to get to his feet, but I had thoroughly crippled him for the time being and he couldn't even get to his knees. I continued to give the horrible excuse for a human being the same treatment I gave to the sableye assassin, leaving him in bleeding anguish. I had never even thought of Serge until he yelled out and I saw another explosion of flames to my right, accompanied by the roars of the other two pokemon. I rushed over to help him, leaving the other two crippled and lying on the ground and sneaked up behind the houndoom, awaiting the opportunity to strike. Something crossed my mind about having an unpleasant experience with these kind of pokemon in my human life, which made it even more satisfying when I unleashed a hard and fast slice at its ankles, and with Serge not having to deal with two opponents at once, he was able to take down the manectric without too much trouble.

"Right, I think that's all of them. I really hope we don't end up outnumbered like that again, if you weren't stuck, I'd have just urged you to flee." Serge said, looking around just to make sure, even though our vision was still shrouded by the black as I ripped off some of the man's shirt and wrapped it tightly over the stumps where his fingers used to be to stop the bleeding as best as I could.

"Thanks for saving my ass there." I said, draining some energy from the houndoom, struggling helplessly on the ground. "Anyway, not far to the church."

"I trust we won't spend long there Floyd." He said as we rejoined the empty and abandoned city road. "Also, I did overhear what you and that human were saying to each other. That street you told him was still mildly populated, it wasn't really that busy street, was it?" I closed my eyes for a few seconds and inhaled to try and reduce stress; he wasn't going to like my answer.

"It was. I am a true Dialgan, I cannot lie." Serge's eyes widened as he backed off from me slightly.

"Wait, can we just stop for a second? I have to think this through for a moment – you endangered a lot of people's lives just to obey some big and powerful entity? An entity that says that killing any human or pokemon is repugnant under any circumstance? I'm at a loss Floyd! This just makes no sense!" He said very quickly to me, clearly being exasperated as he waved his arms about slightly as he spoke.

"These are the rules I follow, and if I had time to explain-" Serge cut me off right here.

"Suppose if by following those laws that Dialga has ordered your kind to follow would cause me to die, would you still follow them? As in telling the truth when it's obviously right to lie in a particular circumstance, just like before." This time, it was I who backed off. I felt cornered here – I couldn't even form a coherent thought on this question, let alone find any words to say. "You would let a close friend die for Dialga? It's all so...so hypocritical. You'd never kill for following some code of ethics, but you'd let others die for it?"

"Serge...I want you to trust me here. I'd find a way to follow Dialga's maxims and never let you die at the same time. Why do you think I cut their tendons by the ankles? Sure they now know where the biggest concentration of 'food' is, but they'll really struggle to get there and even when they do, they'll not be such a huge threat as they could have been. Yet I can't have all the answers, so I will go to the Dialgan church to pray, where I can focus on what moral dilemmas I may have in the future." Serge seemed to be slightly sated, but still clearly concerned.

"If it makes you feel better..." He said and followed me towards the church. We were getting closer to the city centre, but everything the city offered us so far was still an endless sea of houses. I was looking forward to seeing the church that my father had high priesthood over with its glorious redbrick spires, yet I feared that the Neo-Dialgan cult may have desecrated it somehow. Still, providing it was still there and not completely destroyed, it could still serve its function.

"Just don't forget our mission, we really can't waste too much time. Can you at least eat while doing this prayer stuff?" Serge asked as I actually nodded – nothing in Dialgan law saying you can't eat and pray providing you can multi-task well. I looked to the left as soon as we got to Orchard Park, the site of the church, but it was too dark to see.

"Ok, it's just in here Serge. Wish you could get a good view of it though, it's a treat to look at, even if it's not the most spectacular building ever." We strolled cautiously on the pathway, making sure there was nothing that could ambush us nearby. However, the nagging pessimistic thoughts at the back of the head told me that something was wrong, and those thoughts could not be further from the truth. Instead of a fairly modest yet pretty church, standing as firm as Dialgan morality, we had a big, sad pile of rubble. It was almost symbolic, considering what has happened to Edinburgh, but from the miserable wreck that was once a pillar of righteousness came something very unusual – some of the bricks seemed to be suspended in the air a few meters above us.

"...I'm sorry, Floyd." Serge said quietly, looking quite sad for me. I approached the ruin slowly, inspecting what was left of the church. The busted wood from the pews were mostly buried underneath the redbrick, and there was even some of the wood suspended in the air. I touched a bit of suspended wood as it fell to the ground, slowing down as it approached the ruin below. Perhaps it was blown up with a huge bomb stolen from the military by the evil cultists. I just hope that no one was inside when it happened.

I stood roughly in front of where the alter used to be and lifted a few heavy bricks to make a very basic makeshift one to replace it. It looked absolutely pathetic, but it was the best I could do. I started to quickly consume an apple from my bag as I searched for the words to say. Could Dialga even hear us any more? Did he truly abandon the city and possibly the entire world given how it completely turned to shit, or did he abandon...no, it's not possible, he couldn't have.

"Dialga..." I said as I got onto my knees, rested my hands on the alter and bowed my head. It was quite a bit harder in this new body compared to my human one, but it was the best I could do. "I understand you are a non-interventionist, but I beseech you now to take action, I beg of you! No wait..." It felt wrong of me to ask Dialga something that I knew he would not do – he promised he would not directly interfere with the lives of us mortals.

"Dialga...I want to be strong and just, but I don't think I know how to any more. I don't want to see anyone else being slaughtered, I don't want to walk through these rivers of blood any more. Just help me somehow my lord, I don't know how much more of this I can take before my mind and body succumb to the horrors around me. What caused this cataclysm? If we had done wrong, how can it be fixed? I'm your faithful soldier, and I will fight for you until the end, and not like these bastards who committed these atrocities in your name." I must have entered some kind of strange dream-like state and completely lost track of the time, if there was any time, that is, for Serge eventually called out my name from a few meters away.

"You were taking a while, I was just checking on how you were doing. Do you need me for anything?" He asked, stepping on the rubble.

"Maybe...I want to see how and why the church was destroyed, just for a bit of closure on the dead faith. I feel now as though I could be the only Dialgan left. Maybe we can use this dimensional scream thing or whatever Dusknoir named it. Ready?" Serge nodded as I laid my hands upon the bricks and focused on the thought of seeing the church destroyed. It was a horrible thought to be sure, but as much as I tried, I could not get the familiar feeling of zooming in from above.

"Come on! Give me a sign! Fuck!" I said loudly as I tried to focus more, but it simply would not come. "Shit!" I stamped on one of the bricks as I gave up, sat down, and rested my head in my hands. It just didn't seem to work here, and I could not tell why. Maybe it's the human world, maybe it's the stoppage of time, or maybe it's just due to raw emotional stress and misery.

"I suppose we could try later at another place." Serge said, pulling me up to me feet, clearly wanting me to keep moving.

"So there really are still people left that worship the one true master." An unfamiliar voice suddenly said from behind. I spun around immediately and got ready to fight once more, but the human that I saw showed no signs of hostility. Matter of fact, he seemed vaguely familiar.

"I used to attend this church every Monday at midnight, right when the week began. Learned many things here, and they were such good people. A pokemon that follows Dialga's words, eh? Well, it's not the first time it's happened." He said, seeming like he only just noticed I was a snivy. I was now able to recognize him as Blair, a man of about thirty years of age who was a devout Dialgan and a man I saw quite frequently but never spoke too much to him.

"I like passing here when scavenging for food for my wife and I, just to remind me of the values he had tasked us all to uphold. Wait, what sort of Dialgan are you, little one? You're not one of those psychotic reform Dialgans?"

"Er...no? Do you mean the sort of Dialgans who went around purging people they saw as a threat? You are referring to them calling them 'Reform Dialgans?'" Blair nodded.

"They destroyed this church and planned to rebuild it anew to represent the new faith, but their power in the city started to dismantle. A lot of them said that they saw Dialga standing tall upon Arthur's Seat, the hill at the edge of the city and that he ordered this specifically, and I often wonder if they were right or not. Maybe I should have joined them, considering that Dialga may have personally endorsed them. Besides, I was pretty sure I heard some kind of mechanical sounding roar and a strange assortment of dull orange and red lights upon the hill at some point." He sat down next to me as he opened a can of beans and started to eat them cold.

"The High Priest of this church was having none of this, and on the last ever church meeting he had here, he proclaimed that he was sticking to The Righteous Tome's original words even if it was Dialga that ordered the purge. As a result, he was deemed a heretic and the number one enemy of Dialga within this city. I don't know what happened to him, but I do know that he and his son went into hiding with a couple of friends, but they might all be dead now. There was a rumour that they fled from the city, but either way, I don't expect to ever see him again. I miss him and his guidance though, I wish he'd come back and help sort all this out." I was listening so intently that I didn't notice that my mouth was open at an odd and amusing angle up until now as Blair chuckled slightly in response, and I wondered how he could remain even slightly happy in times like these.

"My father, The High Priest might have...what?!" Blair raised his left eyebrow while lowering his right one and knelt down to look at me closer.

"Who are you exactly?" One again, I had the strength to tell the truth.

"Floyd Munro, High Priest Kirk Munro's son, as hard as it is to believe. Very long story." He seemed very sceptical as I expected.

"Yeah...right...look, I've got to head off now. Probably shouldn't be speaking like this in the open anyway with murderous nut-cases running around. There are those who say that Dialga merely abandoned us, which may make sense given this whole time stoppage. Truth be told, I don't know what to believe, or even if following The Righteous Tome word for word is really the way to carry yourself any more. If you really are Floyd, tell Kirk that I hope he's holding up well. Sadly, I can't see my wife and I surviving for more than a few months, given there's almost no food left. Farewell." Blair said before he walked carefully into the darkness.

"Prayers manifest in strange ways, Serge, such as seeing someone who isn't a bloodthirsty psychopath." I forced a chuckle to try and make myself feel better, as unsuccessful as it was. We returned to the road. "Still, now we know who that he-who-must-not-be-named man was. Never thought my dad had that much bravado to stick to his beliefs under the threat of being lynched. My doppelgänger seemed to agree with him, whoever he is."

"If Dialga really did order you to do things against his original word and against your own judgements, would you do them?" Serge asked out of the blue as we approached the commercial districts in the city centre. I slowed down somewhat to think about this, but every thought that entered my mind about it was more confusing and terrifying than the last.

"I'm not answering that question, I shouldn't ever need to answer it. Dialga would not ever ask people to kill, let alone on a scale like this. The founders of the cult did not see Dialga – they are either lying of delusional." I said firmly, looking over my shoulder but not quite making eye contact with him. The buildings slowly grew higher once again to heights that could not be seen, the houses giving way to all manner of shops that didn't seem to be quite as lifeless, the occasional sounds of scurrying and objects being knocked over coming from the scavengers.

"Welcome to Prince's Street, Serge. It's usually a very pretty scene, and good shopping if you have a lot of money. Could I interest you in a mannequin?" I said, forcing a smile and trying to force myself to adopt a positive attitude. "...Can't blame me for trying..." I said sadly as we continued to walk on the quiet street. There were actually a few people walking around, some acting like it was just a normal day as if this calamity never happened, some hunched over, twitching and constantly looking over their shoulder, however, they all looked fairly starved, their cheek bones almost ripping through their skin. They did nothing to alleviate the constant stillness, and those who had a pokemon or gun with them seemed to be feared and respected by all pedestrians.

"A McDonald's, I wonder if there's any food left? I doubt it, but it's worth a look I guess." I said, leading Serge in as we approached the kitchen. We weren't alone as we saw what seemed to be a married couple searching for food in all cupboards and fridges. They seemed to be unsuccessful, so we turned to leave, but as we did so, one of them shrieked and charged right at us without any provocation whatsoever. Diving outside the open door, she tripped when she tried to slice down on us with a meat cleaver, making a loud clang as it cut slightly into the floor tiles. Since we had enough room and time to fight back, we turned on her, but before we could do anything, a loud bang sounded right from behind us, and in the very moment afterwards, pieces of brains and skull bone were covering parts of the floor, little bits of blood splashing onto our faces. What I presumed to be her husband yelled and ran at us only for him to suffer the same grizzly fate as he lied with his partner in death.

"Just making sure the world's another asshole short..." A young woman said behind us, smiling in a genuinely friendly manner. I can't say I approved of killing whatsoever, so I left it to Serge to thank her for killing the aggressors, but before he could get a chance, she ran right past us into McDonald's, took the dead middle aged woman's meat cleaver and started hacking away at their corpses, splashing more blood onto the three of us. She suddenly turned to look at us while doing so, her smile remaining glued to her face.

"Don't worry, I don't shoot and eat everyone I see, only those who have killed others. I'm one of the good guys you see, a real heroine! The world needs heroes right now, wouldn't you say?" She said, sticking a bleeding chunk of flesh and chewed it roughly. "Need my strength to continue my acts of heroism, so don't look at me like that! By the way, there's something really big out there, might just be Dialga though. Seemed like he lasted longer than his cronies though."

"Hope she's tasty...thank you, and goodbye..." Serge said as we left very quickly. We made our way across the street as I dismissed her words about Dialga, knowing them not to be true, or at least that was what I was telling myself. We stayed away from anyone who was armed or guarded by a pokemon, a lot of them thankfully paying no attention to far smaller beings such as ourselves. Seemed uneventful and we were almost at the point where we were heading south, but a wail and quick footsteps from the blackness before us would introduce a complication, to put it lightly. The fairly old man ran right past us, still screaming his head off, drawing a lot of attention. The other humans seemed follow suit and all followed the man, some staying with him, some running on ahead.

"Serge, no need to worry, they're all crazy and untrustworthy aside from Blair. It'll be-" A loud and very low sounding thud passed over us very suddenly, cutting me off, feeling like it would have shook the ground if it was any heavier. "It'll be something..."

In the distance we saw what might have scared them off. Two fairly large yellow searchlights emerged through what seemed like fog and all of a sudden I began to feel quite chilly as coldness crept up from right in front of me and gently gripped my entire body. We both took a couple of steps back as the icy fog rolled over us, the yellow searchlights scanning all around us. Monstrous, heavy breathing could be heard as another heavy, almost ground shaking stomp made us both shiver slightly. We decided to follow suit and stay away from whatever that thing was as we hid in an alleyway out of sight, but we kept watch of this giant creature as it took steps down Prince's Street slowly and ominously, scraping the buildings as it did so. It seemed to be almost as tall as them given how high its glowing eyes were. The sickly yellow lights still seemed to be searching as they illuminated parts of the street, being the brightest thing we have seen since the forest fires. It came very close to the little alley we were hiding in, leaving us both shivering and pale, and we hoped that it would pass quickly.

I wondered what the giant monster was until the penny dropped and my thoughts started to fall into place, falling into the depths of the worst possibilities. I was lying to myself ever since I arrived in Edinburgh, and as a Dialgan, I had to recognize that it was unacceptable. All the stories and everything I had heard so far has lead me to the truthful conclusion. This beast was my lord and master who I have served and followed his teachings since the day I was born, and how he had fallen. I looked away from Serge to avoid him seeing the face of complete defeat. It was all over now, and truth be told, there was now a large part of me that wanted to run in front of him, announce who I was and ask why this had all happened. Whether it'd be signing my own death warrant or not was of no importance to me any more. Looking at Dialga, I realised how close he was to me, about thirty meters, and yet he felt further away from me since the first time I ever heard of him and his wisdom. He roared so loudly that I could feel me internal organs tremble in response as I winced.

"I'll be going now Serge..." I choked. After Dialga started moving away, I left the alleyway as my entire body and mind suddenly went into auto-pilot. I really was not thinking about what I was doing, too stunned at seeing the most divine of all mighty beings be reduced to this. My legs seemed to be running on their own accord as I saw reflections of my time at church and images of Dialga through my watery eyes. I couldn't even see Edinburgh, my eyes now an old fashioned projector, pasting the rotating slides of parts of my life I devoted to Dialga all over my brain. I was not even aware that Serge was following me or trying to get me to stop and listen to reason. Was this all for nothing? Did the lessons I learned from him all become totally invalid? Maybe my father was right, maybe I should keep to Dialga's values when he wasn't a monster. Yet no answers came, only a myriad of questions circulating my mind. I had no idea who was watching me, but it felt like the entire city was witnessing my downfall now.

Eventually I found my way to my flat, though I barely even recognized where I was, even when I was bounding up the stairs. My door was broken off of its hinges and upon entering my old home, most of the possessions had been stolen, leaving only large pieces of furniture behind. I suddenly jumped onto my bed and slumped right down.

"Floyd we really need to be..." Serge said, gasping for breath as he entered my flat, but he felt like background noise. "...Sorry...I'll just rest on the couch, I'm feeling tired as well." I sobbed extremely quietly to myself as I began to feel like I was endlessly falling emotionally. Grovyle had well and truly won and had successfully turned the lord into a mindless creature who can no longer perform his duties. The sheer unmitigated misery lasted for quite some time, and I could not tell whether I was awake of asleep. The sound of footsteps approaching didn't help either, as a man walked right into my room suddenly, completely uninvited.

He stood just over six foot tall with messy brown hair that almost reached his shoulders, rather offset by his clean and well trimmed beard. His clothes were quite messy like his fair, his black fleece torn in a couple of places. While not exactly well build, he was no beanpole and looked like he was very uptight, with no slouching within any part of his body. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and gave me a stern look, and I then instantly recognized him.

"You're that clone, that doppelgänger or whatever you are! The man who replaced me!" I said loudly, pointing an accusing finger at him. He sighed grumpily and took a couple of steps closer to my bed.

"So you ran away home Floyd. Can't say I blame you, it's real scary out here. That being said, whether I took your place or not is not important. What's important here is you, Mr Floyd Munro." He suddenly looked less mean, a smile creeping though his beard as he offered a handshake.

"My name is Mr Floyd Munro, and I'm here to help you."


End file.
